Linked
by Angelikah
Summary: She was honest with him. Now, she's in college building a life for herself, a life that wasn't supposed to involve him. Unfortunately, Klaus's wolf side had other plans. Now she's juggling the school musical, the new roommate(s) from hell, and resisting the urge to jump Klaus's bones whenever she's in his presence. God, she needs a drink. Klaroline. Mate-AU trope. Crack in places.
1. Together For Never

**A/N: Hey all :) Here I am with another story... Right before the start of the next semester... I'm kind of crazy, don't judge me.  
Just as with Circuit Break, this fic won't have a set update schedule, but if the way I'm planning it currently stays the same, it'll be pretty short (the chapters will also be on the shorter side, sorry). I will never post something I don't intend to finish :)  
This fic is the Caroline-Is-Klaus's-Mate story that I've been working on. It takes place about two months post-Klarosex, but anything post-Klarosex isn't canon (I don't know if that makes sense). Hopefully it'll become clearer as the story goes along :)  
Thank you to wondygal &amp; justanotherfiveminutes for being fabulous betas :)  
Enjoy!  
-Angie**

* * *

She'd made a good decision with this one, she thought as her back arched slightly. The frat boy was handsome and blonde, well built, and apparently was _very _talented with his mouth.

There was no spark—there really never was with anyone anymore—but he made up for it with raw fucking talent.

And yes, she did mean that literally.

She'd broken up with Tyler weeks ago—after the whole Klaus fiasco—and she was honestly kind of relieved.

He hadn't been around and she was now single, which meant that she could do single-people things. Like getting her brains fucked out by a frat boy.

She knew that she wasn't ready for a relationship yet. She and Tyler had been together for a long time, but when frat-boy-that-could-do-that-thing-with-his-tongue-that-she-really-liked (note to self: teach that to future lovers)(second, less welcome, note to self: Klaus totally knew that tongue thing already, and she hypothetically wouldn't have to teach him anything)(third note to self: Stop thinking about Klaus) asked her out for lunch the next day, she smiled and accepted.

It was a little out of order, the fucking-then-dating thing, she means, but she needed a distraction, things had been pretty quiet since Katherine died, after all, and even though she knew it wouldn't go anywhere (because, as she previously mentioned, there was literally no spark at all), she was content to use him as hers.

XXX

"_Witch!" He yelled, barging into Priscilla's shop in downtown Nashville, "I have a favor I need to call in."_

_He heard a faint snort from the back room and some puttering around before an old woman poked her head out to look at him. "Of course you do," She mumbled._

"_I think that someone's put a curse on me."_

_"My condolences. Why are you here?"_

_He gave her a cold look. "I think it has something to do with the werewolf gene. I've read about similar curse symptoms in werewolf lore."_

_"All right. Tell me."_

_"I often feel as though someone is trying to very painfully rip out my intestines and then decides to stop after ten seconds or so. Have you heard of anything similar?"_

_He growled at the witch, who looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Oh, it's about time the great Niklaus Mikaelson discovered feelings," She said cheerfully, "Would you like some tea? I'll go put the kettle on."_

_Klaus sighed but followed her, knowing he wasn't going to get all that much information otherwise. Priscilla was…well, she wasn't exactly a friend, but she was about as close to that title as one could get. They had met over a hundred years before, and he was rather fond of her in the way that one might appreciate a goldfish that wouldn't have the decency to die after he got bored of it, but was occasionally useful as entertainment on a rainy day. He sat down at a rough wooden table covered with an absolutely revolting doily (Caroline would have had a heart attack just looking at it), and waited for the tea to be ready._

_When Priscilla set down a cup in front of him and sat across from him he immediately asked the question that had been burning in his mind as soon as she's spoken the words. "What do you mean I discovered feelings?"_

_Priscilla laughed. "What do you know about werewolves?"_

"_Just get on with it and stop asking questions."_

_She huffed before setting her cup on the table. "Quite a lot changes for werewolves after they trigger the gene. They become calmer in general, because they have somewhere to send the pent-up aggression, and they also tend to pick a mate almost immediately after their first transition."_

"_Yes, I know that much," And Caroline was his mate, he was sure of it, "But what does that have to do with the pain?"_

"_I'm not quite sure how to put this delicately," Priscilla said slowly, "But that's not a curse. It's an instinct that's telling you that your mate is being pleasured by another, which, in natural terms, would mean you aren't caring for them sufficiently in all ways." _

_He blinked and then suddenly felt rage boiling up into him._

"_Why didn't this happen before? I've known that Ca—who my mate is almost as soon as I saw her, but…She had a lover at the time, and it's not as though they didn't…"_

"_My guess is that you probably claimed her between then and now," Priscilla said._

_He knew that she was having a lot of trouble keeping her face straight, and Klaus snorted at her words._

"_I'd love to see anyone try to use the word 'claim' in relation to Caroline in front of her. It would probably be the last word they ever spoke." _

"_Well, luckily for you, that's your job."_

"_I'm not going to go all the way back to her after telling her I'd leave her alone until she decided to be with me and tell her that, are you insane? What am I supposed to say, exactly, _'_Hello, Caroline. I don't know if you were aware of this, but werewolves have mates, and you are mine, and I would now like you to accompany me back to New Orleans, far away from your friends, so that I may lock you in my bedroom and ravish you for as long as physically possible'_?"

_Priscilla was shaking with laughter, though she had the decency to not laugh at him out loud._

"_What?" He asked irritably._

"_Well, if you aren't going to go back to her, all you'll have to do is live with the knowledge that every time you have that feeling she's having sexual relations with another man. Doesn't sound so hard, right?"_

"_I've had to live with worse," Klaus mumbled, getting up to leave._

XXX

He threw a glass against the wall, and it shattered with a loud crack, tiny pieces falling all over the floor.

"What did that cup ever do to you?" Rebekah asked, poking her head in to investigate the noise.

"It wasn't the cup," He mumbled.

He felt that _twist _in his stomach. The same one that he'd described to Priscilla, and the same one he'd felt nineteen times so far (but who's counting?) since he'd left Caroline in Mystic Falls two months before.

It was an unpleasant feeling, like someone putting a hook in your abdomen and jerking it harshly, but the feeling always disappeared after a few moments. And then he would feel…oddly _empty_, that feeling where you know that you should feel _something _but all you can feel is the absence of feeling.

He wasn't sure that the explanation made any sense, but he wasn't sure how else to put it.

He also wasn't quite sure which feeling was worse, the pain or the emptiness, but he did know the cause.

Caroline Forbes was brought to orgasm by another man.

He felt oddly creepy whenever it happened, as though he were intruding on a private moment, which he was, really. He always had to remind himself that she didn't know, and that she wouldn't find out unless he screwed up his nerve to go all the way back to Virginia and tell her that every time she had sex with someone he felt it, and in order to prevent him from going mad could she please stop.

Although, he probably wouldn't put it that way, as it would just make her angry.

He also probably wouldn't be able to resist adding "and let me fuck you instead," which at this point in their relationship would be rather counter-productive.

He wanted nothing more than to tell her, though. This was the first time since he'd met her that he'd been away for a significant period of time, and he _needed _her. It was worse than before as well, because she'd finally given into him and then he'd had to leave because that was what she'd _wanted _and he couldn't exactly say no, could he? And now she's gone and he's stuck in New Orleans with only his sister for company who, despite being almost a thousand years old, still doesn't quite seem to have grasped the meaning of "leave me alone."

"Are you brooding about the baby vampire again, Nik?" Rebekah asked, sounding oddly sympathetic.

"No," He lied, sinking down on the couch and picking up his sketchbook from the side table, flipping through to a clean page and beginning to sketch.

She snorted, plopping down next to him and resting her feet on the coffee table. "Liar."

They didn't speak for awhile, the only sounds were Klaus's pencil scratching on paper, and the clicking of Rebekah's wine glass as she sipped from it and laid it back down on the coffee table.

He winced at another sudden jerk in his abdomen and decided that he wasn't about to sit here and let his mate have her way with anyone she liked. She was _his_, and she should understand that as soon as possible. He stood up, grabbing his coat.

"Where are you going?" Rebekah called after him.

"The airport," He said shortly, slamming the front door behind him.

XXX

So, anyway, here she was on the day after frat boy had left getting dressed and feeling slightly sorry for herself because she couldn't seem to_ connect_ with anyone. Jesse had been sweet, but she hadn't felt anything from him, really. She had definitely felt things for Tyler. She loved him (loved, past tense, she realized). And…Tyler was _Tyler_. He was safe and kind and loving and absolutely _hated _her now because she'd slept with Klaus.

Klaus who had _clearly _ruined her for anyone else (so far).

Yeah. So far. That was a good way of putting it. She would remain optimistic.

There had to be _someone_ better at having sex than him in the world, and she was going to find them.

Eventually.

Right now, though, she was digging through her closet. She decided against the floral babydoll dress when she realized that even though she wouldn't notice, it was probably cold and pulled on jeans and a top instead, grabbed a purse and made her way to the tiny café where she was supposed to meet him.

She saw him sitting at one of the outside tables and sat down at the other side, picking up a menu. They made semi-awkward small talk (how do you talk to someone who's name you didn't know until after you'd seen them naked without being at least semi-awkward?) while they waited for their food to come.

As they kept talking, the date got gradually more comfortable. He was funny and seemed to genuinely like her, and Caroline found that she actually genuinely liked him.

As a friend.

She was completely frustrated with herself. He was _totally _her type, and she just…couldn't make herself like him. He walked her back to her dorm, and she smiled, thanked him, and said that yes, she would enjoy going out again, and she had homework to do, but could he please give her a call?

She swiped her key card over the reader and entered the dorm, making her way to her room rather quickly. She unlocked the door and slipped in, shutting it behind her, turning around to find Klaus's nose about an inch away from hers.

She screeched in surprise and then pushed him away from her. "What the _hell_, Klaus?"

"I didn't mean to startle you," He said, which was about as close to an apology as she was likely to get.

"Why are you here? You were supposed to leave."

"I said I'd leave Mystic Falls," He said calmly, pulling out his phone, which had just vibrated, and fiddling around with it.

"But…Okay. Whatever. _Why_ are you here?"

"To take you back to New Orleans."

She felt a bizarre mixture of excitement, confusion, and indignance. What do you even _say_ to that?

She settled for an "Excuse me?" while inwardly panicking.

"I am here to take you back to New Orleans with me."

"No."

He nodded, as though expecting that response—which he probably had. "Well, the alternative is me staying here, so I assumed that you would rather come with me back to New Orleans."

"Okay. So clearly you don't understand the concept of 'leave and don't come back,' but, just to clarify, what it means is that you _leave and don't come back._"

"I need to be with you."

"Okay, so you're like, moving way into crazy-stalker territory. Like, more than you were before, I mean."

"It's not my fault that you're my mate."

"I'm sorry, I'm your _what_?"

She couldn't have heard him correctly. There was no way in hell that he'd actually said that. Were mates even, like, a _thing_?

"I said that you are my mate," Klaus repeated, not even bothering to look up from his cell phone.

She couldn't help it. She burst into giggles. "I'm sorry. Wait, what?"

He repeated his statement, and she shook her head. "That's ridiculous."

"No it's not," He said, suddenly sounding rather irritable.

"So assuming that this mate thing exists, you're telling me that there's some sort of higher cosmic power that determined that we were _meant to be_? Or something?"

He shrugged, still not looking at her.

"But you were born like, a thousand years ago! If your mate's determined when you're born, wouldn't your mate have died already?"

"Well, my assumption would be that because a mate is only chosen once the wolf side has been activated, and my wolf side was locked away before I had met an appropriate match, breaking my mother's curse allowed my mating instinct to emerge, and that instinct chose you," He said slowly, clearly having given this thought, "Of course," he continued, his voice taking a lighter tone, "Whoever is in charge of this whole destiny business could have just decided a thousand years ago that you were the one for me. I suppose we'll never know."

"This is bullshit."

"Beg pardon?"

"It's bullshit. I don't believe you."

"You don't…believe me?" Klaus asked slowly, looking at her for the first time during the conversation.

"I've never heard of this whole _mate _thing before, and—"

"Oh, yes, of course love, it's not as if you didn't practically _just _learn that werewolves existed at all."

"It's been like, two years!"

"Exactly."

She glared at him. "That's not the point. Wolves are mostly monogamous, but they don't mate for life."

He raised an eyebrow, apparently impressed, and tucked his phone into his jacket pocket. "Where did you learn that?"

"Discovery Channel."

And by that, she meant that as soon as she figured out that Tyler both was a werewolf and actually genuinely liked her, she looked up everything she could about wolves—both supernatural and otherwise.

Caroline Forbes was nothing if not thorough.

"Regardless, werewolves are not the same as regular wolves, love. They _do _mate for life."

"Well, since I'm not interested in being your mate, what happens now?"

Klaus smirked. "Considering the fact that the last time we spoke face-to-face we knocked down three trees and you walked home in almost nothing besides a sweatshirt and jeans, I'd say that you were _quite _interested."

"That was a one-time thing," She mumbled, her face heating up.

"If you say so," He said, inspecting his nails, "I'm sure that you will come to your senses soon enough."

"And what if I don't?" She asked again, her voice much more serious.

He shrugged. "I don't think anything particularly special happens. Apart from condemning both of us to eternal misery, of course," He said, looking up at her with big blue sad-eyes.

She directed her gaze towards the ceiling, hoping that she looked exasperated rather than like she was trying to avoid looking at him. She wasn't sure she was succeeding.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She felt him take a step closer, but didn't look at him. "Well," he began, his voice light, "I suppose when I first saw you, I just…_knew_. I felt this odd attraction to you. It was like nothing I had ever felt. After I clai—made love to you—"

She scoffed quietly, before inwardly freezing and narrowing her eyes.

Was he about to say _claimed_?

He continued, as though he hadn't noticed her discomfort, although she was sure that he had, "I felt…full. Sated. Content. I felt as though I had been starving for a thousand years but didn't know it until I ate," She made the mistake of looking down and somehow became attracted to his gaze, "I know you felt it too, Caroline."

She felt a slight tug in her abdomen, but wrinkled her nose to try to hide her reaction.

"So, how exactly does that condemn us both to eternal misery?" She asked, slightly proud that her voice didn't shake.

He gave her a tender look. "Because neither of us will ever be able to have the depth of feelings we have for each other. Any outside relationship we attempt—well, _you _attempt, as I do not intend to…ah…_cheat_ on you—will feel empty and incomplete. You will always feel that something's missing, and be unable to truly emotionally connect to anyone in a romantic way."

She felt her breath hitch, and immediately her mind wandered to the date she'd just had with frat boy, and further back to Tyler and Jesse. She realized why she barely felt anything at all after being with Klaus.

And now she knew why.

She knew that he hadn't seen it coming, and he grunted as her palm connected with his face.

"You ruin everything," She said, her voice deathly quiet.

"So I've been told," He said, pinching the bridge of his nose, the red mark already gone.

She couldn't love because of him.

She couldn't connect with anyone because of him.

It was his fault.

His. Fault.

"I hate you," She spat, her eyes filling with tears.

His eyes widened before he looked at her with such tender loving eyes that she almost wished he looked murderous.

"So I've been told," He said quietly.

The curtains rustled, and he was gone.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review to let me know what you think (it's the only way I get your opinions on the stories I'm writing, so don't be shy). :)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	2. Inquiries

**A/N: So first of all, I am actually floored at the response that this fic has gotten. Thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites. Your kind words have motivated me to get this out faster than it would have gotten otherwise (because of all the other stuff I'm writing).  
So, just to be clear, this is post-5x11 with weird canon. Katherine is still in Elena's body, and TO never happened. As far as this fic is concerned, Klaus &amp; Co. left the show and are doing mystery things in NOLA that no one knows about that don't include babies. :P  
As I said in the first chapter, the chapters for this story will be shorter than my usual ones, averaging around 3,000 words each. This may change in the future.  
Thank you so much to justanotherfiveminutes for beta work! I am excited to share this part of the story with you.  
****Enjoy!  
-Angie**

* * *

Caroline knocked firmly on the door to the shop she'd been directed to by Luke Parker (who she'd really had to grill for the information), and waited for the witch inside to answer it.

There was a soft thunk of a cane on the floor and a few footsteps before the door opened to reveal a kind looking old woman, whose face dropped to a frown when she saw Caroline. "We're closed."

Caroline smiled at the witch cheerily. "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I'm Caroline Forbes, and I was told you could help me with something?"

"I don't help vampires."

"Look, I don't need a spell. I just need some information on werewolves."

The witch cocked her head to the side. "Werewolves can be killed by-"

"No, no, I don't want to kill them. Can I please come in? I won't hurt you."

The witch gave her an assessing look before stepping aside, allowing Caroline to step into the shop. "I need to know about werewolf mating habits."

The witch raised an eyebrow.

"Look. It's a long story, but basically this guy that I know...He says I'm his mate, and I don't think I am, and I want to research it so I can go in with more information, you know?"

The witch remained silent but walked over to a bookshelf in the corner and pulled out a large grey leather-bound tome, holding it out to Caroline.

"This has what you need, though I request that you read it here. I do not like my books being taken out of the shop. I have never heard of such a thing as a werewolf mating with a vampire, but I suppose that there's a first time for everything."

"Thank you so much!" Caroline said, immediately plopping down on a nearby chair and opening the book, rifling through it trying to find a helpful section.

_If a werewolf triggers the curse, it is common for them to quickly become connected to someone, it takes some longer than others, most commonly another werewolf, though there have been recorded instances where a human without the gene has been chosen. _

_This connection between mates is called a "Link," and it is unbreakable from the moment it is made. _

Unbreakable? No, that couldn't be right. Magic always had a loophole. There had to be a way to break the bond.

_The Link manifests itself in various ways, and different pairs might have different experiences. There are only two traits that almost always appear in mating couples._

_When the werewolf's partner is distressed or in danger, they may feel an instinctive need to check on them. These instincts should not be ignored, because they are nearly always accurate._

_The other trait is the inability to develop deep emotional connections with potential partners other than the mate._

_Though the Link is unbreakable, when the mates first find each other, the connection between them is tenuous at best. Before the claiming, both parties are already affected by the traits of the Link, though those traits are a pale variant of what the mates feel after the claiming._

Caroline bit her lip. So, assuming that Klaus had been telling the truth and she was his mate, he hadn't been wrong about the difficulty with connecting to others, which was definitely a symptom she was feeling at the moment. She'd never had a feeling that Klaus was in danger, but then again Klaus was practically unkillable. She decided to keep reading.

_In addition, after the initial claiming both parties may experience overwhelming desire for their mate when in each other's physical presence until the bond can be properly managed. _

_Other side-effects may include a variety of things that indicate from one mate to the other that they are unhappy, whether with the relationship, their partner, or their sexual fulfillment. Some examples are projected emotions (one mate sharing a specific feeling with the other, such as sadness or anger), a painful tugging felt in the abdomen when your mate is sexually fulfilled by another, or a partner feeling agitated because the other is angry with them._

She snorted. A _painful tugging_ when someone else gave her an orgasm. God, that would be mortifying. She was glad that theirs didn't seem to have that, because she would have felt it if he had…

What if he hadn't?

What if he'd been painfully feeling her having sex with all of these frat boys and-ugh. Nope. Too creepy. Not going there.

She sighed, setting the book down and rubbing her palms over her eyes. "I think that's enough for now, but could I come back some other time if I have any more questions?" Caroline asked the witch tiredly.

"I don't see why not."

Caroline gave her a brilliant smile and thanked her before walking back to her car. She pulled out her phone to check for texts and made a face as she saw one from Klaus.

_Lunch at Jack's Burgers._

She snorted. It was so Klaus to order her to have lunch with him without even so much a please. Yeah, no.

_What's the magic word?_

She checked the rest of her texts while she pressed the unlock button on her car remote and slid into the driver's seat (Stefan had asked if she'd seen Elena-she hadn't-and her mom had reminded her that they'd planned to have dinner that weekend) and was about to pocket her phone when it buzzed again with a text back from Klaus.

_Noon._

Caroline rolled her eyes. _Wrong answer. _

She sighed and put the key into the ignition, twisting around to pull out and slamming on the breaks when Klaus appeared right behind her car.

She sighed and started to back up again.

What was the point of his immortality if she couldn't hit him with her damn car?

He reached out and put his hand on the bumper, stopping it from moving, and she glared at him. He didn't seem to be moving away, so she stopped the car and put it on park, getting out to walk up to him. "What?"

"We're going to lunch."

She glared at him. "No, we're not. You can if you want, but I have a microbiology test to study for."

"Don't you have questions?" He asked.

"About…?"

"Oh, come now, Caroline. I know exactly what you were doing in that witch's shop, and I believe that I can answer your questions better than almost anyone."

"If you tell the truth," Caroline mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. "What...characteristics, or whatever, does our mate bond have? Assuming that we are mates, I mean."

"We are. And I have discovered very few so far, but one of the most common traits is being sensitive to your mate's emotions, and I knew you were in an absolutely foul mood last night after I left, which is why I wanted to make it up to you with lunch."

"No."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself, love."

He didn't move, and she crossed her arms and glared at him. "I need to leave."

He met her stare with a heated one of his own, and she felt a small shock run through her. She felt like every time they made eye contact, she couldn't bring herself to look away. Her mouth went dry.

"So leave."

"You're in my way," She said, fighting not to rasp the words.

He smirked, and she wondered why he looked so calm when she felt like her whole body was on fire.

"Aren't I always?"

"Yes."

He smiled, and she wanted that smile brushing up against every bit of her body. She wanted his lips to touch her neck, to feel the fangs hidden underneath them elongate and bite her, _mark _her, and-"What are you doing to me?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, love," He said, his lips curled into that infuriating smirk.

"Of course you do," She said angrily, her skin prickling with a need to be close to him, to _feel _every centimeter of him against her naked body, to wrap her legs around him and- "You're making me feel… feel-"

"Aroused?" He asked, looking more amused than anything, "I'm not _making _you feel anything Caroline. You are attracted to me and your body is reacting," He said, as though he were speaking to a child.

"Stop being so condescending," She snapped, trying to calm the flush overtaking her body.

He moved closer in response, and she longed to lean towards him, but she restrained herself, gritting her teeth and taking a step back, closing her eyes briefly when the back of her knees hit the back bumper of her car. She was trapped.

"I'm simply telling you the side-effects of the bond," He said, moving even closer to her.

She could easily side step him and leave, but she felt as if her feet were rooted to the concrete, unable to move, and she kept herself leaning back away from him, knowing that if she gave in for even a second she wouldn't be able to let go.

"Why are you so _calm_, then? Is it just me?" She asked, her voice sharp, abandoning the prospect of denying this stupid...bond...thing..._Link_...in favor of needing to know why she was so much more affected by it than him.

He stopped in front of her, his body centimeters away from hers, his mouth bent near her ear. "You think that I'm not?" He asked, his hot breath on her ear making her twitch, a stab of arousal hitting her at just his proximity to her, "You think that I haven't wanted to bend you over and fuck you against the car from the second I saw you? That I didn't want to take you against the door last night in your room until you could barely walk, vampire abilities or not? That it's not taking every single bit of self control I have not to grab you, wrap your legs around my waist, and make you scream in front of everyone in this parking lot?"

She let out a small, breathy moan, wondering how he managed to have this much of an effect on her, how he wasn't even _touching _her and she already wanted to do every single one of those things, and perhaps one or two more…

"This is just as trying for me as it is for you, _my_ _love_."

There was something about the way he emphasized his last words that made her breath shudder, and when he pulled away, his lips twisted into an evil smirk, and she came back to herself, she suddenly felt fury at his actions build within her at an alarming rate.

"Stop _doing _that," She said, her voice shrill and angry, "Stop making the Link...making me-"

"Stop making you want me? Now why would I want to do that? It might make me stop having to feel it every time you allow someone else into your bed."

"_What?_"

"Every time another person gives you pleasure, I _feel _it, and all I want to do is take you against the nearest surface-flat or not-and show you what a huge mistake you're making. No one else will ever be able to make you feel the way _I _can. No one else will be able to satisfy you the way _I _will. You are _my _mate, and every time that I feel you being pleasured by another, I feel the need to claim you again to show you who's name you should be screaming. _Mine_."

His eyes were darkened with lust, his voice rough and needy, and she felt an insistent ache between her thighs at his possessive words, the thought flitting through her mind that she might (would) feel the same way if the roles were reversed, if she knew that he was screwing some other woman.

He was _hers_.

She restrained the moan that had been about to escape her, and instead pulled herself away from him and stalked back to the driver's seat of her car, sliding in and starting the ignition. If he didn't move, she was going to run him over, whether it wrecked her car or not. When she turned around to pull out, he was gone, and she sighed.

This Link thing was ridiculous. They needed to find a way to break the bond, and quickly, or she would be stuck wanting to fuck Klaus every second of the day until they'd learned to "properly manage" the bond.

Not that there weren't worse things, really. No. No, Klaus was a terrible person, and she couldn't give in. She would just have to resist the impulse to go to him, and find a way to break the bond, and everything would go back to normal.

God, she needed a drink.

**XXX**

"We're over," Katherine said abruptly to Damon, trying to insert as much sweetness into her voice as possible.

"Very funny, Elena."

Katherine pursed her lips. "Damon, I can't take it anymore. The killing...The darkness...I love you, but I don't know if I can handle this."

Damon stiffened, looking up at her, and Katherine smirked inwardly. She was almost done with everything on her mental list of things she needed to do to sever ties with everyone in Mystic Falls and go off on her own.

The change had been gradual. After she'd found out Caroline slept with Klaus-questionable taste in men, to be sure, but incredibly convenient for Katherine-she'd been able to successfully divert most of the attention from her to Caroline. Now, some months later, she'd been systematically breaking off most things keeping her tied to Mystic Falls, while still keeping the connections that might prove valuable later (Caroline, Stefan, and Bonnie being most of them). You never knew when a witch would be handy, and Caroline had the potential to be able to keep Klaus away from her.

And Stefan? Well, that was more sentimental than anything else.

"You're serious?"

Katherine nodded slowly, faking a small tremor.

Damon's eyes clouded over, and his face was harsh and still. "Fine. Leave."

She let her eyes fill with tears and sped out of the front door of the house before allowing herself a small smile.

**XXX**

Klaus stalked into his hotel room a mile away from Caroline's dormitory, having ran there within minutes, and slammed the door shut behind him, leaning against it and running a hand through his hair. That could have gone better.

He cursed his werewolf senses for what felt like the hundredth time since she'd gotten out of her car, her eyes bright with anger and her curls rustling slightly in the breeze with her arms over her chest, and as soon as he'd met her eyes he could smell the beginnings of her arousal.

He had to admit to himself that part of the reason that he'd cornered her against her car, careful not to touch her, was so that he could inhale the scent of her, which grew with every second. He had decided before he'd arrived at Whitmore that the first time he took her she would have to initiate. He wanted her to have to admit to herself that she wanted him before he claimed her again, and if he made the first move, it might push her back rather than forward.

He had seen the desire for him in her eyes though, and thought that it was only a matter of time, even though his instincts had been burning inside him, insisting that his mate was wet and wanted him and _needed _him.

She was probably pulling up in front of her dorm, still rubbing her thighs together in the front seat trying to relieve the ache between them. He could almost still smell her, and he was hard, his cock straining against the front of his jeans, and he didn't think he'd ever wanted anything more in his life than how much he wanted Caroline Forbes with her legs spread wide, screaming his name as he pounded into her, and _fuck_ he needed a cold shower or a strong drink or _something. _

He decided on the shower, and let his thoughts wander as he stepped under the spray. Caroline had not yet truly accepted the fact that she was his mate, and he doubted she would for awhile. Even so, once she had, she would tell her little friends, and they would want to kill him (because that seemed to be her friends' answer to everything. When in doubt, attempt to kill him).

Unfortunately, if they did, they would be condemning her to an eternity of misery, which he hoped that she would explain to them enough that they would decide not to.

Wishful thinking, he knew.

In addition, there was the matter of his enemies. Once Caroline had accepted the bond, she would obviously accompany him back to New Orleans. If anyone caught wind of Caroline's existence, there would almost immediately be attempts on her life, and she wasn't the type to sit around all day to avoid being kidnapped.

No, he needed to find a way to protect her.

Unfortunately, short of locking her in a padded room for the rest of her life (unthinkable) or guarding her every second of the day (which she would never allow), there wasn't much he could do unless she could protect herself on her own.

She was only two in vampire years, which meant that she had almost no hope of being able to fight off anyone over the age of twenty without the element of surprise or superior weapons. They would have to find a way to make her stronger. He could teach her to fight, but even then she would still be vulnerable to weapons, and it wasn't as though she could be made impervious to stakes through the heart.

Or could she?

His mother had created the spell to turn humans to Original vampires. What if they could modify the spell to work for vampires?

The consequence would be that such a spell would then exist, which would be dangerous for the whole supernatural population, unless he managed to keep it a closely guarded secret. The witch would have to be trustworthy.

He ran through the names of various witches that he knew, landing on Priscilla as the most likely to be able to help, having the needed background information already, and an astonishing sense of self-preservation, meaning that she wouldn't tell anyone that it happened if she wanted her head attached to her body.

They would first have to locate the spell, which meant that he either had to find a grimmoire copy of it (unlikely to exist) or have Priscilla contact Alaric Saltzman from the Other Side.

He would call her later that day, and get to work. It was settled, at least in his mind. As soon as Caroline accepted the bond and took her rightful place beside him, he would turn her into an Original.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Thoughts on their Link? Klaus's solution? What's Katherine up to? Let me know what you think! The only way I get to be a better writer is through feedback. :)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	3. Brunch

**A/N: Still floored by the response. Haha. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I hope you enjoy this ;)  
****Thank you to justanotherfiveminutes for beta work :)  
Edit: I took out a line because I completely forgot about a time line event. So, just a reminder for this story going forward (and it's totally my fault that it became confusing), Katherine is still in Elena's body, and no one knows.  
****Thank you Bex for (probably accidentally) motivating me to finish writing this chapter. :P**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"I need to talk to you guys," Caroline said frantically, bursting into Elena's dorm room.

Though both of the other girls didn't really attend college anymore (having been too late to register, and there were some things that even compulsion couldn't fix), they had compelled the housing office for three singles side-by-side, and for the RA to ignore the fact that there were two residents that didn't technically attend the school.

"What's up?" Bonnie asked, looking up from the book she was reading on Elena's bed.

"It's Klaus," Caroline said, sinking down into the beanbag chair in the corner.

Elena's head snapped up from what she'd been looking at on her laptop and she closed it and turned to Caroline. "What about Klaus?"

"He thinks...Well, I mean, I guess it's true. We're-we're _mates_," she said, whispering the last word as though it was a filthy secret that she couldn't even bear to admit out loud.

"Mates?" Bonnie asked incredulously.

"Yeah. You know, werewolf mates."

"Can you break the bond?" Bonnie asked immediately.

"According to this witch I talked to, it's unbreakable, but every spell has a loophole, and...I just need to break it."

"Is the mating bond even a spell?" Elena asked, frowning.

Caroline deflated. What if the bond _was_ unbreakable? What if she was stuck with Klaus forever?

No.

She was Caroline motherfucking Forbes, and she would break this stupid bond if it was the last thing she did.

She just needed more information.

"I don't think so, but I can ask Klaus about it. Maybe the information he'll give me will give us a hint."

"What's the mating bond like, anyway?" Elena asked, cocking her head to the side.

Caroline bit her lip, debating the pros and cons of telling her friends. They both knew that she'd had sex with Klaus in the woods (courtesy of Elena), but she wasn't sure how well they'd react to it.

"Well," she began slowly, "Apparently there are different forms the link can take. So like, there are side effects."

"What kinds of side effects?" Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We can feel each other's feelings sometimes."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was really angry, he said he felt it. And last night I felt this weird sadness, but there wasn't a reason for me to be sad, you know? And he can feel it when I have sex with someone, apparently. And he's so..._possessive._ And I am too, and it scares the crap out of me," she said, her words slowly speeding up as she talked.

"He can feel it when you have sex with someone?" Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, that's kind of invasive."

Caroline shrugged helplessly. "I've never felt it. I don't know, he could be lying."

"Or he could be celibate," Elena said, grinning.

"I find that hard to believe."

"Why?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Because...Well...He's evil, but I have _eyes_, okay?"

Elena laughed. "Yeah, okay, but he still really likes you. If he still wants you after you guys screwed in the woods…"

Caroline frowned in surprise. Elena was being surprisingly nonchalant about this whole thing. Something felt off.

It wasn't the first time she'd had a weird gut feeling about Elena, but she just sort of wrote it off to feeling upset about her break-up with Damon. Caroline was honestly over the moon that her friend had finally broken up with that asshole, but she knew better than to say anything.

"Elena, shut up," Bonnie said irritably, before turning back to Caroline. "Is there anything else?"

Caroline bit her lip. "Well...He came to Whitmore to see me. You know, to tell me all of this stuff. And whenever I'm near him, I feel this weird pull."

"So you want to fuck his brains out," Elena said, smirking.

Caroline huffed. "Look, we just need to fix this as soon as possible, okay?"

"Look, don't take this the wrong way, but why?" Elena asked. "I mean, I know you said that he feels it whenever you have sex with someone else, but it sounds like a good deal to me. The most powerful person on earth loves you unconditionally, you'll never have a boring sex life, from what it sounds like...Besides the fact that he's evil, I see no repercussions to this."

"Yeah, exactly, Elena. He's _evil_."

"Plus, he said something to me about not being able to connect with other people, and I think he's right. Jesse and Tyler both didn't feel like romantic attachments. I haven't had a real crush on anyone since that day in the woods," Caroline admitted.

_What if I break the bond and I still can't feel anything for anyone? _

"Look, find out more information about the bond, and we'll try to figure out how to break it without any repercussions, okay?" Bonnie said soothingly, getting up to put a hand on Caroline's shoulder.

"Okay," Caroline agreed. "I have class today, so I'll call him tomorrow."

**XXX**

Klaus heard the opening notes to the ringtone he'd picked for when Caroline called and immediately rolled over and picked up the phone. "Morning, Sweetheart," he greeted, inwardly patting himself on the back at the gravelly morning voice.

"Klaus," she said, though he grinned at the fact that her voice had a breathy quality. "I want to talk to you. About this link thing."

"Of course, Love. Anytime. I'm staying at the–"

"Not at your hotel room," she said immediately, and he smirked.

_Worried you won't be able to keep your hands to yourself then, Love?_

"All right. Where, then?"

"Take me out for brunch."

"Where?"

"Cassie's Diner. It's on the corner of Elm and–"

"I know where it is. I'll be there in half an hour."

"Okay," she said, before abruptly hanging up on him.

He smirked to himself.

He took a shower and dressed, trying to figure out the best way to handle the inevitable stream of questions. He suspected that she wanted to break the bond, and though he knew that it was unbreakable, he wanted to show her that she wouldn't want to.

He decided that honesty was the best policy. If she couldn't break the bond anyway, there was no point to holding back information. He wanted Caroline to be happy with him, and Caroline seemed to be fond of honesty.

When he arrived at the small diner, he saw Caroline in a booth towards the back and immediately started over to her.

"Good morning," he said again, gesturing to a nearby waitress for coffee and picking up a menu.

She was staring down at her menu, clearly determined not to meet his eyes. "Do you know what you want, love?" he asked, keeping his voice low and gravelly.

He saw her twitch slightly, and he smirked to himself. Watching her react to him was going to be the best part of his morning.

"Yes, I think so."

He waved over the waitress, a plan forming in his mind, and gave the girl a dimpled smile.

"Good morning, my name is Sasha and I'll be taking care of you this morning. What can I get you?" the waitress asked, apparently determined to be casual.

He let his voice drop an octave to one that he knew for a fact made women fall over themselves to help him. "Good morning, Sasha," he said, grinning as Caroline stiffened across from him. "I'd like the blueberry pancakes."

"Of course. Um, anything to drink with that besides coffee?"

"Just water's fine, love. Thank you."

Caroline's eyes snapped up to glare at him. He smirked at her, knowing that his behavior was ringing all of her possessive alarm bells, and that she was just itching to stake her claim. Knowing his Caroline, she would do everything in her power to stay casual. To not let the bond win.

He was determined to change that.

"I'd like the buttermilk waffles, please," she said politely.

"Anything else?"

"No, thanks," Caroline answered with a tight smile, handing the waitress her menu.

He gave the girl his as well, though he made sure his hand brushed hers, watching Caroline's reaction through the corner of his eye.

Her eyes were closed, and she appeared to be doing the deep breathing exercises commonly taught to new vampires by their sires-if they bothered to stick around long enough to help the fledgling through the transition-and smirked to himself.

The fact that her control was that shaky was a good sign.

"So," she started, her voice casual, "Can you tell me more about the side effects of the link?"

"You'll have to be more specific love," he said, waiting patiently for her eyes to flicker to his.

She licked her lips unconsciously, and he felt his cock twitch at dart of her tongue running over her lips. "What side effects do you know for sure that we have?"

"I only know the ones that I've experienced, but as far as I know, we have the emotional link, the instinctive possessiveness, being alerted by a sharp pain if you are pleasured by another, and arousal when in close proximity," he listed.

He let his voice wrap silkily around the words, allowing them to drip with innuendo and keep them from being the least bit clinical. Her breath hitched, and she stared determinedly at her iced tea. He could smell the arousal pooling in her core, and he briefly inhaled, closing his eyes while he did so, knowing that she'd hear it.

"Okay."

He saw her jaw set, and she looked up, her eyes narrowed, pulling the iced tea towards her and wrapping her lips around the straw, making eye contact with him, her eyes dark. The message was clear: Two can play this game.

She pinched the middle of it lightly between two fingers, her lips bobbing up and down on the straw as she sucked the iced tea through it, licking her lips lightly when she withdrew. He couldn't help but lick his lips as he watched her, and if he hadn't had supernatural hearing he wouldn't have heard the breathy moan that escaped her lips as she pushed the glass away from her to make room for their food.

She smiled and thanked the waitress politely, Klaus doing the same, although he added a slight roughness to it, and he could faintly hear the rough fabric of Caroline's jeans brush against itself as she rubbed her thighs together.

She poured a pool of syrup on her plate and held her silverware delicately in her hands, carefully cutting her waffles into neat sections and spearing a piece with her fork, dragging it through the syrup until it was dripping and bringing it up to her mouth, catching a few drops on her tongue to prevent the syrup from dripping, before putting the piece of food in her mouth, pulling the fork out slowly.

Klaus's eyes were glued to her lips, and his cock was now straining against the front of his pants uncomfortably. He shifted, trying to give himself some relief, but Caroline seemed to have noticed because she took another piece and let a drop of syrup fall onto the creamy skin of her cleavage visible through the top of her blouse. She put the fork back on her plate and caught the bead of syrup with a finger, bringing it up to her mouth and sucking the syrup off her finger tip.

He groaned audibly, and when she removed her finger from her mouth and grabbed a napkin, he let his eyes close for a fraction of a second. She dipped her napkin in her water glass and dabbed at her cleavage with it, cleaning it of the sticky substance, leaving a trail of water slick against her breast, catching the light.

Her eyes were still fixed on his face, her lips parted slightly, and her tongue darted across them to lick up excess liquid.

He could smell how wet she was simply from trying to seduce him, and he had never been so turned on in his life. "Caroline…" he whispered, a warning tone prevalent in his voice.

"Niklaus," she whispered back, her eyes teasing, and he growled at her, knowing his eyes were flashing yellow.

She clearly thought that she had the upper hand, and he couldn't have that. There were certainly times when he let her take charge, where he let her lead, but this was _not _one of those times. She was challenging him, and he had to make her submit.

"Don't test me, Caroline."

She took a sip of her iced tea, not answering him with anything but the curve of her lips as she sucked the liquid through the straw, draining the glass completely.

He leaned forward over the booth so that they were close together, and from the hitch of her breath he knew that she felt his proximity to her. "Do you like putting on your little show for me, Love?"

Her tongue darted out to lick her lips again, though he suspected that it was more of an unconscious movement that a provocative one. "Do you like knowing that I'm hard for you under the table in a room full of people? That I can smell how wet you are for me between your legs?" he whispered roughly.

She panted slightly, her eyes dark with lust. "You know how much I want you, Caroline, and you're trying to take advantage of it. So know this, my love, my _mate_, I would like nothing more than to take you from behind on this table, your face pressed into the surface while I pull your hair and pleasure you between your legs, to hear your muffled screams as I slam my cock into you, and I make you come around it over and over until your juices are dripping down your thighs. I want to claim you in front of all these people and make you shout my name for the world to hear so that they know you're _mine_."

She moaned loudly enough at his words that a man at a nearby table sent them a confused look before turning back to his meal, and Klaus smirked at her.

"But I won't," he continued.

Her breath hitched, and gave him a strange look that was a combination of relief, arousal, and...disappointment? He grinned widely at her. "I won't, because the next time I fuck you, you will come to me. You will spread your legs for me and beg for my cock in you, for me to make you _scream_. I want you to accept your place by my side as my mate, to crave it. I want you to submit to me, Caroline."

He could see her chest rise and fall with her shallow breaths, the scent of her soaking pussy wafting up to his nose, and he inhaled it, licking his lips. He took a deep breath and let it out, pulling out his wallet. "Did I satisfy your curiosity, my love?" he asked at a normal volume, his grin wicked.

She glared at him. "I'll never submit," she said quietly, her eyes burning into his.

He let his lips curl up to give her a dimpled grin. "We shall see, won't we?"

He put a fifty on the table, not bothering to calculate how much the brunch would actually cost, and prepared to get up to leave, pausing before he did so, knowing that he'd have to speed out to make sure no one got a glimpse of the straining bulge in his jeans. "And do keep calling me by my full name, Caroline. I love the way it sounds coming from your pretty lips."

He left before she could answer.

**XXX**

She felt her cheeks flush as she sat in her car outside the diner, trying to calm herself. She should have known better than to try to bait him. Her pussy was aching and wet and _empty _and there was a huge part of her that would like nothing more than to speed after Klaus and insist that he take her. Hard.

But she wouldn't. She was determined, if not to break the bond, then at least to not give into him. She started the ignition and pulled out of the parking space, making her way back to the dorm. Once she'd gotten to her room, she locked the door and wriggled out of her jeans, throwing her blouse and bra into the hamper in the corner, and flopped back on the bed. She slid her thong down her legs and immediately began circling her clit with her finger, trying to find some sort of relief, before pausing.

Could Klaus tell when she pleasured herself? Or just when she had sex with other people? She bit her lip, rubbing her thighs together to try and relieve the ache in her dripping pussy while she thought about it. Sure, he could have remained celibate, but there was no way he could have gone without touching himself, especially since the time in the parking lot. And anyway, she'd done it when she got home since then, and he hadn't mentioned anything. Considering that he hadn't exactly been shy earlier about saying what he wanted to do to her, she suspected that she was safe.

She spread her legs and continued to rub her clit, fingerfucking herself with the other hand and whining slightly when she couldn't get deep enough, before turning over onto her knees, fucking herself deeply with her fingers. She moaned into her pillow, grinding herself against her fingers, letting her fantasies overtake her.

In her mind, Klaus was behind her, the heat of his naked body pressing against her own, his cock slamming into her, his balls slapping against her as he fucked her hard. He was muttering the filthiest things to her, telling her how good she felt and how much he wanted her...She bit her lip, drawing blood, feeling herself getting closer to the edge until she tipped over it, screaming Klaus's name into her pillow, thankful that it muffled her voice so well.

She pulled her fingers away, slick with her own juices, and let them rest on her blankets while she caught her breath. She knew she should feel guilty for fantasizing about Klaus, but she justified it to herself.

If thinking about him got her off, that's what got her off, and it's not like anyone would ever know unless she told them. Her mind was a private place. She rolled over onto her side, letting herself come down from her high completely before she grabbed her chemistry textbook for a bit of studying.

She took a well-deserved study break an hour or so later, and when she looked up again, the sky was dark. She yawned, stretching, and started binge-watching a new television series that Bonnie had recommended, falling asleep a few episodes in.

_The vervain burned her wrists and mouth as she found herself tied to a chair in a classroom at the school, Evil-Alaric looming in front of her. She felt the tears pricking her eyes, and was only half aware of what Evil-Alaric was saying, the words seeming to fall out in blurry slow-motion._

_She was terrified, her undead heart beating quickly in panic, and she screamed, though it was muffled by the vervain soaked cloth in her mouth, and–_

She was shaken awake, thrashing around at the sudden contact, though the person that had woken her managed to hold her down. "Caroline? Sweetheart, open your eyes. It's me. It's just me, you're safe."

"What the hell, Klaus? Why are you here?"

"You were having a nightmare."

"What? Are you spying on me in my sleep now?"

How long had he been there? Had he seen her touch herself earlier? When she screamed his name?  
"No, actually you called me," he said irritably.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was painting in my studio, and I got a rush of blurry images of Alaric Saltzman, along with a foreign feeling of terror. I assumed that you had been kidnapped, but I decided to check here first, as that seemed suspiciously like a memory, and you were having a nightmare, so I woke you."

"You were watching my dreams?"  
"Not on purpose. I suspect that you were frightened, and so you instinctually reached out to me."

"Is this normal? It didn't say that this could happen in the book…"

"Well, I've never seen a reference to it, but if I had to guess, it would be that we are both vampires, and as vampires have the ability to enter other people's dreams–"

"We can communicate through dreams," Caroline finished, starting to panic. "I don't want you in my head."

"If it's any consolation, I didn't exactly mean to enter it."

She glared at him, and he shrugged.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes. You can go now," she said.

Now that her panic was winding down she was _very _aware that he was shirtless in her bedroom at night, and she was only wearing a large t-shirt and lacy boy shorts. She felt her face start to flush.

"Leave."

A smirk stretched across his face. "Are you sure you want me to go?"

"Yes."

"Suit yourself," he said, turning to leave. "Good night, my love."

"_Leave_," she said, trying to fight down her smile at his attempts to be charming.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave me a review so I know how you feel about it. The only way I get better is through feedback :)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	4. Trust Me

**A/N: It's still Friday for me, and since Friday is an update day for a fic, here's an update for a fic ;)  
Thank you so much for the follows, favorites, and reviews! I'm so glad you guys like this story.  
Thank you to justanotherfiveminutes and CKhybrid for beta work.  
****Enjoy!  
****-Angie**

* * *

"I don't know what to _do, _Elena," Caroline groaned, burying her face in her hands.

Katherine considered her options. She could tell the blonde to go for it, but that seemed strangely out of character for Saint Elena.

Then again, she couldn't pretend to be Elena for the rest of her life, or she might go batshit.

Well, more batshit than she already was.

She was very self-aware, thank you very much.

She had to make sure that it was both completely impossible to return Elena Gilbert back to her body (which she was 99% sure was already done), and also ensure that Caroline cared about her enough to not let Klaus kill her when the time came to come clean.

"Make a list."

Caroline gave her an odd look, and Katherine just gave her what she hoped was a cheery smile. "Make a pros and cons list, Caroline."

"Why did I not think of that?"

"Probably because you're afraid that the pros will outweigh the cons," Katherine said dryly.

Caroline tilted her head, giving her an assessing look.

"What?"

Caroline shrugged. "Nothing. Don't worry about it. Do you have a pencil?"

Within twenty minutes, Caroline had made an extensive list of pros and cons while Katherine watched over her shoulder and occasionally contributed points.

The end result was a long list of very small pros and three very important cons (_he is not afraid to kill people I care about_, _he has done terrible things_, and_ my mother hates him_).

"He makes you happy," Katherine said, trying to sound resigned and like she was playing devil's advocate rather than impatient for Caroline to get the fuck on with it and put the guy out of his misery so she could _go the fuck to New Orleans_.

God, she missed Elijah.

"Look, I don't need anybody to make me happy, okay Elena?"

"Yeah, not any _body_, except Klaus's," Katherine said, resisting the urge to give Caroline a wink and a smirk, and instead settling for a giggle.

"Since when are you Team Klaus?"

"Since I realized that you sacrificed a huge amount of your personal comfort when I dated Damon, and I should do the same for you. Even though Damon and I didn't work out, you were there for me, and you wanted me to be happy, and I should do the same for you," Katherine said, pasting a sickly sweet Elena-smile on her face.

And it was true, too. If Katherine had the motivation (and enough fucks to give), the pros-cons list_ she_ could make for being Saint Elena's friend would make anyone come to their senses and ditch the bitch.

Well, except Damon, but really he'd just been looking for a replacement for her the entire time. Sadly for Damon, no one does Katherine Pierce like Katherine Pierce.

* * *

"Here he is," Rebekah announced, dropping Kol's body rather unceremoniously on the ground in the middle of the pentagram. "Get to it."

"We need blood," the head of the coven said shortly, and Rebekah rolled her eyes, slashing her own wrist and letting the blood drip onto Kol's body.

She stared at the coven leader expectantly, who immediately began to chant, her coven members following her.

Rebekah watched in morbid fascination as the ash marks of her brother's grey skin faded into his natural creamy hue. There were whole chunks of his body that regrew before her eyes, and she almost felt herself choke up as the chanting of the witches faded, and Kol's eyes flew open, red, bloody, and _hungry_.

Rebekah immediately thrust a blood bag at him, which he sneered at before grabbing the nearest witch and draining them dry within seconds. Once the surrounding witches had realized what happened, Kol and Rebekah were screaming on their knees.

However, what Rebekah knew and the witches did not, was that Kol had one of the most absurdly high pain tolerances of anyone she'd ever met.

And she was an Original.

Aneurysm spells by definition disabled vampires. The blood vessels repaired themselves even as they were damaged, leading to unbearable pain that never ended, even causing the vampire to get weaker over time. If the witch was strong enough, they could easily desiccate a vampire by forcing them to use all their energy to heal themselves. However, though the spell was unbelievably painful, it wasn't disabling if you could stand it.

She saw her brother breathe deeply before pushing off the ground, snapping three necks and draining the last witch of the five, throwing her to the ground in disgust and wiping his lip with the back of his hand.

"Took you long enough."

Rebekah didn't make a habit of crying.

Sure, she shed tears every so often when something didn't go her way. She threw tantrums or she got her feelings hurt, and tears fell (and hearts left chests).

She'd originally thought Kol had been lost forever. She'd locked herself in her room for three days straight after staging a pointless fight with Klaus (not that she had fooled anyone) just lying in the dark mourning her brother. She'd stayed up at night sometimes talking to him, hoping he was watching her from the other side.

Klaus had always been her favorite brother. He had taken the time to indulge her silly girlish fantasies as a child while making it clear that that's what they were. He drew her pictures and protected her from the 'big bad' boys of the village. He'd made her feel safe.

Kol, on the other hand, had played with her, made her laugh, and practiced magic with her. He'd supported her through the hard times. He'd left them to go out on his own, it was true, but he always returned to them. To her.

Yes, Klaus was her favorite brother, but Kol was her best friend.

She was in his arms within moments in an uncharacteristic show of weakness, tears falling, blubbering out sounds that weren't close to any language she knew, and he just held her.

And she could have sworn that he shed a tear or two as well.

* * *

"Witch!"

He heard Priscilla's faint sigh of irritation from the next room as she hobbled in. "Can I help you?"

"I want to know if it's possible to turn a vampire into an Original. Actually, I just want you to do it. I don't particularly care whether you think it's possible or not."

"For your mate?" Priscilla asked.

"Obviously."

She pressed her lips together. "Well, what were the components of the original spell?"

Klaus gave her a pointed look. "You are sworn to secrecy, of course."

"Obviously."

"The blood of the doppelganger was required and made into an elixir. As I have managed to gather, there were two other ingredients, which determine the loopholes of the spell. One was the ground ash of the anchor, which in this case was the white oak tree. The spell was also bound to the tree, although I suspect very strongly that the tree was just a convenient natural anchor, rather than having a larger significance. The other was vervain powder. The amount of the elixir does not matter as long as the proportions stay equal in that each of the three ingredient portions must have exactly the same weight."

Priscilla nodded once, a serious look on her face. "And are there any other parameters?"

"Yes. It must be done during a solar eclipse. I checked before I arrived. The next one is on May 20th, and rather conveniently can be seen from Virginia. We need to be ready by then."

"So, if I understand correctly, the only things that are even close to complicated are finding the blood of the doppelganger and deriving a new incantation for the spell, as the old one most certainly will not work on vampires."

"Yes."

"What do you know about doppelgangers?" Priscilla asked.

"Almost all there is to know, I believe. After all, I did look for them for over a thousand years. Though it is a common myth that doppelgangers descend from a family line, therefore implying that if a doppelganger does not have children there will be none left, the truth is that doppelgangers may appear at any time in any place, and are always born shortly after the last doppelganger dies. I would wager that there is already a year-old doppelganger baby growing up somewhere."

Priscilla nodded. "Excellent. So then you know what you must do."

He resisted the urge to groan. This "find the doppelganger" bullshit would never leave him alone, would it?

* * *

"Nik!"

Klaus's head snapped up at the familiar voice, and he turned to see his little brother enter the room. "Kol," he greeted, trying to keep his voice neutral, but not succeeding.

Rebekah had called him earlier that week and told him that Kol had returned, and Klaus had even spoken to him briefly, reassuring him in as few words as possible how happy he was to have his brother back.

He and Kol didn't often get along, but as Elijah and Rebekah often said, it was because they were more similar than different. When Kol had died, each of them had dealt with it in their own way. Rebekah had staged that ridiculous fight with him, and he and Elijah had heard her sobbing for hours in her room, both wanting to help but too drained themselves to bother. Elijah had thrown himself into organizational tasks. Klaus honestly dreaded the day that his brother and Caroline were stressed at the same time, because there would be a war of epic proportions about the best way to clean everything. Honestly, he'd bet on Caroline.

And it wasn't even because he was biased, which he'd freely admit he was. Caroline was simply a force of nature.

He had been devastated when Kol had died.

"Are the rumors true?"

"What rumors?" Klaus asked slowly, knowing very well exactly what Kol was talking about.

"That tasty little blonde from the bar. Is she really your...ahh..._mate_."

Klaus honestly didn't see much point in lying.

"Yes."

"Excellent. When do I get to meet her?"

"You've met her."

"Yes. Before she decided that she'd give you a chance. Before she said she'd rather die of thirst, remember?"

Yes, he remembered that moment very well.

"She didn't decide to give me a chance," Klaus pointed out, rather reluctantly.

"Well, she also said that she was too smart to be seduced by you, and look how that turned out," Kol said cheerfully.

He didn't bother asking how Kol knew that. Eavesdropping was a favorite pastime of his brother's.

He made a low humming sound before changing the subject. "Kol, I have a request."

"What else is new, Brother?"

"I understand that we haven't exactly got on well in the past–" Kol snorted, but Klaus continued as though he hadn't heard, "-But I was hoping I could ask for your help."

"With what?" Kol asked warily.

"I have some things to take care of–"

"Oh no, Nik. If you're going to ask me for my help, I'd like to know the full extent."

Klaus regarded his brother with serious eyes. "All right. I need you to understand how absolutely serious I am about this, Kol. Family, always and forever, right?"

Kol nodded.

"Caroline is a part of this family."

Kol gave him a look not unlike the one Elijah gave to suspicious looking stains on couches in hotels.

"Go on."

"I have plans to create a spell to change her into an Original vampire, so that she can't be killed," Klaus said slowly.

"Which means that you need to acquire doppelganger blood, which means you need to _find _the doppelganger, and I'm assuming that you don't want to bring your girl along because that would mean showing her off to lots of people that could kill her pre-ritual."

Klaus had to hand it to his brother; he'd always been intelligent. Although, this particular situation most likely had more to do with Kol's witch background than anything.

"So, let me guess," Kol continued. "You'd like me to locate the doppelganger and bring her back."

"No, actually," Klaus said slowly, mindful of the fact that Kol now looked twice as dubious of Klaus's motives as he had before. "Have you ever thought of going to college, Kol?"

"No. Absolutely not," Kol said immediately. "I am _not _going to escort your girlfriend everywhere like a bodyguard."

"Kol, if you want to earn my trust–"

"If _I _want to earn _your _trust? Really, Nik? If anything, you should be trying to earn mine. You have done nothing but berate me, isolate me, and dagger me for _centuries_. Why on earth should I want to help you?"

"Because you're family and she's family."

"Not enough," Kol said plainly.

"And because she's best friends with the Bennett witch."

He was almost certain he'd never seen such a bizarre mix of anger and resignedness. "Fine. I'll protect your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend, she's my–"

"Mate. Whatever," Kol said irritably. "Tell me you're not expecting me to go with her everywhere?"

"No. But you'll live with her in the apartment. Perhaps you'd like to study something. Might I suggest musical theatre?"

"You're hilarious, Nik. Really."

"I think you'll find that it's right up your alley."

"You've already signed me up haven't you."

Klaus gave his brother his version of a helpless shrug, which probably would have looked genuine had it not been for the shit-eating grin he knew was stretched across his face.

"Joy," Kol muttered.

* * *

"_-A silver ribbon on the waves...leading directly to me and you...nothing is too wonderful to be true,_" Caroline finished, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as she smiled at the director.

"We'll email you if you got a call back. I highly suggest that in the meantime you learn the songs for the part you're auditioning for. Thanks for coming," he said shortly, making her frown slightly.

"Thanks."

She jumped about a foot in the air when she found Klaus lurking in the hallway, and felt the familiar tug of arousal in her lower belly at his proximity. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to even her breathing, before she spoke. "Seriously, Klaus?"

"How did it go?"

"Pretty sure you heard the entire thing. Also, why are you here?"

"You were anxious."

"Yeah, because I was about to have an audition, which I'm sure you knew anyway because you're a creepy stalker."

He shrugged. "Actually I didn't. You asked me to leave you alone."

"And you listened?" she asked, completely floored.

"Well, it is my goal to keep you happy. You are unhappy when I attempt to control your life. Therefore, I am not attempting to control your life."

"Umm... Well, thanks then," she said awkwardly, now feeling oddly off-kilter.

"So? How did your audition go, love?"

She decided to humor him. "Well, I think. I nailed the high notes, and Bonnie said I wasn't pitchy when she helped me out with it last night."

"The Bennett witch sings?"

"Yeah. We went to musical theatre camp every summer together. She was my best friend. Before I turned, Elena didn't like me all that much."

"The doppelganger didn't go?"

Caroline snorted derisively. "No. That was the only thing I had on her growing up hands-down. I love Elena, really, I do, but that girl cannot carry a tune to save her life."

"I'm sure you had many things 'on' her growing up, love."

Caroline shrugged. "I don't think you would have liked me when I was human. I wasn't a very pleasant person."

"And yet, I am sure you were much more interesting and likeable than the doppelganger."

She snorted. "You should tell that to 99% of the residents of Mystic Falls."

"I don't have to. If they don't know that by now then they're not worth attempting to convert."

She felt a laugh bubble up in her. "If you say so."

"I do. Were you hoping to get a specific part?"

"Yeah, actually. I was really hoping to get–Hey. You're not allowed to compel me a part."

He put his hands up, palms out. "I didn't say I would."

She glared. "You were totally thinking about it."

He shrugged. "Of course I was. But if I did, you'd spend the entire time inwardly debating about whether you should have taken the part or not, and if you really deserved it. I think you would be happier knowing you got it fairly."

"You're really thinking these things through."

"Well, you like it when I–"

She suddenly felt a surge of anger. "Stop. Your world _doesn't _revolve around me and what I want. I don't want you to base every facet of your life around what I want. Is that what this stupid mate thing does? Do you _really _like me Klaus, or is it just this stupid link? Because honestly, it seems a bit like a sire bond, and that is the creepiest thing ever."

His face darkened slightly and he grabbed her hand, the skin to skin contact making her pussy ache in complete contrast to how absolutely _angry _she was feeling, pulling her to a nearby office and shutting the door behind them, locking it.

"I want you to listen to me very carefully, Caroline. This link is a two way street. You are _my _mate, but I am just as much yours. If I had a sire-like connection to you, you would have one to me as well. If the bond was forcing feelings on me that I didn't have, they would be forcing you."

"But what if they're forcing feelings in both of us?" she asked, trying to ignore the insistent tug of arousal every time he called her his mate. Hell, every time he spoke. His proximity was making her skin prickle.

"Are you saying you have feelings for me, Caroline?"

"Is that really what you got out of that? Of course I have feelings for you, you jackass. I told you that in the woods, remember?"

"Which was _before _I claimed you, and therefore before the bond really took hold," he pointed out.

She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "Right. Okay. Fine. But I'm not...I'm not your fucking world Klaus. I can't be the center of your universe."

He shrugged. "Of course you're not. I would do almost anything to make you happy, because you are my mate, and I love you, but I do make my own choices, love. I have free will," he said, a bit too matter-of-factly for a love confession, in her opinion.

"Okay."

They were quiet for a moment, and she felt her body becoming more insistent the longer she sat there with him. "I need to go."

_Before I jump your bones._

"Wait, Caroline. I actually have to talk to you about something."

"What?" she asked irritably, her nipples brushing almost painfully against the rough fabric of her bra as she attempted to take deep, calming breaths.

"I'll be going on a bit of a trip for the next few weeks."

Caroline nearly sighed of relief. She would have a few weeks of not having to think about Klaus and his annoying arousing presence.

"For what?" she asked, curious.

"I have business to take care of."

She narrowed her eyes. "Isn't this supposed to be a partnership? Like, you know, where you tell me things? And trust me?"

He smiled, somewhat bitterly. "I love you very much, Caroline. More than you can even imagine, I'm sure. But nonetheless, no matter how much I love you, you still have proven time and again that I cannot trust you. Until that changes, I'm afraid that there are some things that I cannot tell you."

The door was open and he was gone before she could blink, and she had the strange urge to burst into tears, mostly because it was true. He loved her, and she had thrown it in his face multiple times, and _used _him for the benefit of her or her friends. Why should he trust her?

She didn't know what scared her more: the fact that she desperately wanted him to trust her, or that she already knew that she would trust him with anything.

Still trying not to sniffle, she grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder, walking back to her dorm room at Whitmore, nearly shrieking when she saw that it was practically empty with a large stack of cardboard boxes.

"What the–"

"Trust me, Darling, this is going to be about as much fun for me as it will be for you."

"_Kol?_"

* * *

**A/N: So, what do we think about Caroline's new roommate? How are we feeling about the development of Caroline and Klaus's relationship?  
This fic will have a sub-plot revolving around Caroline's college experience. I'm a theatre person, and I thought it would be fun to explore the fact that the characters do, in fact, attend school :P  
I also really wanted to acknowledge that Kat Graham is fabulous and should get to sing somewhere, haha. The song that Caroline auditioned with was "Nothing Is Too Wonderful to Be True" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which is NOT the musical she'll be doing.  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	5. Join Me, Bonnie

**A/N: For Giulia &amp; bbqt. Thank you for making me give a fuck about this fic. :)  
****Thank you to Sophie &amp; Wifey for beta work.**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"_Nothing matters, but knowing nothing matters...it's just life, so keep dancing through…_Ugh. This is a _terrible_ song," Kol complained, switching off the instrumental version of the song that was playing through Caroline's computer.

"It's from _Wicked_," Caroline said from the couch where she'd been reading her biology textbook, her tone clipped as though the name of the musical should explain everything and discredit his opinion completely.

"Well, I don't care. Why can't I just compel myself a part again?"

"Because then you might be taking it away from someone who deserves it more than you. It wouldn't be fair."

"Life isn't fair, sweetpea."

"Don't call me pet names, Kol. It's creepy."

"I _am _creepy."

"That, you are," Bonnie said dryly as she walked through the door, closing it behind her. "I was hoping I'd never have to see you again."

"Well, we can't always get what we want, Bonnie Bennett," Kol said, giving her a grin.

Bonnie made a face and thrust a pile of sheet music at Caroline. "Here's the music for the show. I highlighted the ones that Audrey's in."

"I refuse to do this song," Kol interrupted. "It's bad enough that Nik is making me do this stupid show...What's the show about, anyway?"

"A plant that only grows if you feed it blood," Caroline said absently, leafing through the sheet music.

"That was a serious question."

"Yeah, and that was a serious answer. Little Shop of Horrors is literally about a man-eating plant."

Kol gave her a dubious look, but nodded warily. "All right. Fine then. I still won't do this song."

Bonnie and Caroline exchanged a look. "Well what song _do _you want to do?"

"What musicals are there?"

"There are more than we can list. Why don't you just go through my music and see if you can find something you like," Caroline suggested, already tired of the whole thing.

"What is he?"

"A tenor."

Bonnie sighed. "I'll help if you don't find something in the next hour or so."

"Thank you, Darling."

Bonnie just huffed before turning to Caroline. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Always, Bon," Caroline said, closing her book and unceremoniously dropping it to the floor before hopping up to follow Bonnie into her bedroom.

She'd only been there for two days, but her room was already unpacked and decorated (a testament to how determined she was to avoid Kol), and she'd been debating whether it was worth calling Klaus to ask him if she could spend money to redecorate the rest of the place.

If he was going to force her to move she might as well spend his money on things she liked.

They sat down on her bed, cross-legged, and Bonnie sighed. "So, this mating thing…"

"Yeah?"

"Is it really unbreakable?"

"Well, according to the witch I consulted, yes. She also said that there's no record of a vampire ever being bonded to a wolf though, let alone a hybrid, so there's obviously a first time for everything. I think our bond kind of defies the rules. We've already discovered side effects that are unrecorded as existing."

"Like?"

"We can share dreams. I don't know how to explain it. It's like when I'm dreaming I send him the pictures in my mind, or he sends them to me…" she trailed off remembering a _very _vivid dream she'd had two nights before that had left her wetter and more wanting than she'd ever been in her entire life (and she was afraid to ask Klaus about it in case he hadn't shared it).

Bonnie wrinkled her nose. "Like, all your dreams?"

"We haven't figured out how to control it yet. Sometimes we share them, sometimes we don't."

Bonnie nodded. "Anything else?"

"He can feel it when someone else makes me come. Apparently it's painful," Caroline said rather clinically, trying to fight down the blush threatening to stain her cheeks.

"When someone else makes you come? Like, including you?" Bonnie asked awkwardly.

Though Caroline and Elena had both had sex with their fair share of guys, Bonnie's only experience had been with Jeremy, and she was still a bit uncomfortable discussing her (or anyone else's) sex life, not because she disapproved, but because she hadn't had enough experience to feel comfortable sharing (especially with Elena, since the other girl hadn't wanted to hear anything about her brother having sex).

Caroline shook her head. "Nope. I think he would have hinted at it if he could."

Bonnie bit her lip nervously. "Do you want me to try to break the spell for you? Or at least research how to lessen the side effects?"

"I don't know if that would be a good idea."

"Why? Do you _want _to be linked to him for your entire life?"

"I don't know, okay?" Caroline said, running her hands through her hair. "He's just...it feels so _right_, which is awful because he's killed so many people. I feel so guilty for wanting him, but I feel like I'm drawn to him. I researched it a bit more, and he was right about the love thing. I can't feel a connection to anyone else. What if you sever the link and I can never have a connection to anyone even afterwards?"

"I'm sure I could figure out a way."

"But what if it goes wrong? Isn't it better to be in love with Klaus than to not be able to love at all?"

"You're in love with Klaus?" Bonnie asked, her eyes widening.

Caroline shook her head frantically. "No. No, not at all. But...I feel like I could be. Someday."

At Bonnie's look of disdain, Caroline pushed on with the thoughts that had been building slowly since he'd come to her in her bedroom all those months ago. "And really, who are we to judge, Bon? Do you know how many people Damon's killed?"

"I hate Damon, too. If it weren't for Elena I would have staked him in his sleep a long time ago."

Caroline snorted. "Okay, bad example. What about Stefan? Elena without her humanity?"

"But Klaus has killed so many more."

"And Klaus has lived five times as long as Damon and Stefan. Don't you think their death toll would be similar after that much time?"

"You've really put thought into this," Bonnie mumbled.

"Yeah. I'm just sick of...I'm sick of feeling guilty, you know? Like, I _do _feel guilty, but I don't want to."

Bonnie nodded slowly, and Caroline could see her friend was caving, so she went in for the metaphorical kill: Logic. "You know, being a vampire has given me a different perspective, and I feel like it's silly to deny myself things I want, because I have an eternity to change my mind, you know?"

Bonnie gave her a sideways look. "What do you mean?"

Caroline shrugged. "There's less risk to making bad decisions. I have forever to fix it. Maybe staying bound to Klaus will be a terrible decision. Maybe it won't. I have forever to break the bond if I need to. For now, though, I want to see where it goes."

Bonnie made a face. "Please don't tell me you're going to run off and confess your undying love to him."

Caroline laughed. "No. He's definitely going to work for it."

"Good."

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Caroline broke it. "You know, it might be nice to have someone to make bad decisions with."

She'd noticed the way her friend looked at Kol when he wasn't paying attention. She knew those disdainful scoffs and hair flips well, because they had been her armor against Klaus such a short time ago.

Bonnie gave her a sideways look, before shaking her head. "I know where you're going with this conversation, and I don't want to talk about it. I'm not dating Kol, and that's final."

"It's funny how you assumed that I was going to talk about Kol and not like, you know, going out and getting wasted, which would be a terrible decision."

Bonnie snorted. "I know you, Care."

"_And_ it's funny that of all the boys you thought I'd mention, you picked Kol. I think you like him."

"And I think that this conversation is over," Bonnie said firmly. "Let's go see if Kol's broken your laptop yet."

* * *

Caroline waited outside the door to the theatre while Kol auditioned, able to pick up everything from the other side. He had just finished introducing himself and the opening chords of the portion he'd picked started.

"_I am flame and I am fire, I am destruction, decay, and desire...I'll hurt you, I'll heal you…"_

Kol's voice was smooth and he had perfect pitch. She had to admit the song choice was much better than the one she'd have chosen, both in terms of his vocal style and his personality. She couldn't see him, but she could tell he was having fun with it.

"_I'm your wish, your dream come true, and I'm your darkest nightmare too...I've shown you...I own you…"_

It was only a few more bars before he was done, and she heard the director tell him that callbacks were the next day, and that he should look over the songs. Caroline had expected this, and when Kol came out, he nodded at her shortly, knowing that she'd heard the verdict already, and walked her out of the building. "You didn't have to come."

"I know," she said, shrugging. "I figured that if we're going to make this roomie thing work we might as well spend time together."

He gave her an assessing look. "You thought I'd compel the director if you weren't there, didn't you?"

Caroline gave him an elegant shrug of her shoulders. "Tomato, tomato. Come on, we need to stop at the furniture store down the street. I think they have the new couch finally and I can't lift it by myself."

He nodded, and they walked the few blocks to the store in silence. "If I ask you a question, will you promise to answer it honestly?" Kol asked suddenly.

Caroline shrugged. "If I don't want to answer it, I won't, but I won't lie to you."

"Do I have a chance with Bonnie?" he asked without missing a beat.

"I don't know. Bonnie keeps that kind of stuff pretty close to her chest. If I had to guess, I'd say that if you show her that she'd be more to you than a casual fling, and actually mean it, there would be a slightly better chance than 'never'."

"How on earth would I go about doing that?"

"Um. Haven't you ever had to 'woo' a girl before, or whatever?"

"Not in a long while, and back then there were social conventions one followed. Additionally, it wasn't really up to the woman anyway, awful as that sounds. Their fathers had total control over their futures, and there weren't really any that didn't want to take the opportunity for their daughter to marry a rich lord, i.e. me."

"Oh. Well, just try to be thoughtful."

He blinked, and Caroline rolled her eyes. "You know...Like, pick up her favorite coffee if you're running by the store anyway. Make sure that we have stuff she likes in the fridge when she comes over. That kind of thing."

He nodded slowly. "That sounds doable. And, anyway, when in doubt I could just draw her a picture of a horse. I've heard that works wonders."

Caroline snorted. "Can you even draw?"

"Nope," Kol said cheerfully, holding the door open for Caroline as they entered the shop.

It only took about fifteen minutes to get the couch to the car, and once they were on the road, Caroline screwed up her courage to ask something that had been bothering her.

"Do you know what Klaus is doing?"

Kol raised an eyebrow. "On the road, I'd assume."

Caroline huffed. "No, I know that. I meant why did he leave?"

"He told me that I couldn't tell you."

"Since when has that stopped you?"

He shrugged. "Since I could use the fact that you wanted the information as leverage. You really should work on that, Darling. Learning to act like you don't give a shit makes the whole preventing blackmail thing infinitely more simple."

"Fine. What do you want?"

Kol turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Eyes on the road, Kol."

He snorted. "We're vampires. We can't die."

"Yeah, but car crashes hurt, and you've only been driving for what, three months?"

"Five and a half," he said, slightly petulant.

"Whatever."

He sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you."  
"Really?"

"If you get me a date with Bonnie."

"You're joking, right?"

"Not at all."

"How am I supposed to manage that, exactly? In case you weren't listening earlier, she's not exactly interested at the moment."

"That's not my problem. Just do it and I'll tell you."

"Fine. Whatever."

"That's my girl."

"I'm not your girl."

He snorted. "Fine. That's Nik's girl."

Caroline didn't even dignify that with an answer.

* * *

"Please?"

"No."

"_Please_?"

"Saying please again in an extra whiny voice doesn't help, it just makes me more annoyed," Bonnie said, popping a chip in her mouth.

"Look, I just really need to know what's going on with Klaus. It's important to me."

"Can't you make him tell you?" Elena asked from her perch on the couch in the corner.

"How would I do that?"

"I don't know...Bribe him."

"With what?"

"Sex."

"Elena!" Bonnie whined. "Gross."

Elena shrugged. "He would spill for that, though. In more ways than one."

Both of the other girls groaned.

"Since when did you decide that vulgar was the new classy?" Caroline asked, irritably, her nose still wrinkled (because she didn't want Klaus to spill anything anywhere near her. Not even a little. Okay, fine, maybe a little).

"Look, point is that I don't want to. Okay?" Bonnie interrupted, sensing a discussion that she clearly had no interest in being a part of.

"I totally took one for the team and went out with Klaus once," Caroline argued. "You should do the same for me."

"Yeah, but by your own admission, no matter how much I personally disagree, that turned out well. This won't."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "We didn't know that at the time, and neither do you now. Look, please? What if he's doing something dangerous and stupid?"

Bonnie glared at her. Caroline widened her puppy eyes.

"Okay, fine. No, don't look so happy yet. I'll make you a deal."

"I'm listening."

"Ask him again tonight. If he doesn't spill, then I'll do it. But tell Kol that the date is to last a maximum of three hours, be completely in public, and he can't try anything."

Caroline gave her friend a bright smile. "Thanks, Bon. You're the best!"

"Damn right," the other girl mumbled.

They talked a bit more before Elena excused herself, and once the door was closed, Caroline held up a hand, counting down from five before speaking. "Don't you think Elena's been weird lately?"

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, totally. I mean, she's just gotten a lot more...brash, I guess. It's like she has her humanity off, but she obviously doesn't."

"Yeah. It's weird. I've never heard her talk like that. And she's been pushing me towards Klaus like crazy, almost like she wants us to be together for some reason."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, that is weird. I mean, I get where she's coming from, since Damon is the worst person ever, but it just doesn't make any sense. If she wasn't dead, I would totally think it was–"

"Katherine," Caroline breathed.

The two girls looked at each other. "How would she have done that, though? And where's Elena?" Bonnie asked.

"I have no idea."

"It seems so ridiculous, though. I don't know how it could have happened. And how would we figure it out?"

"We'll just ask her a bunch of awkward questions about childhood memories that she has to remember but that are hard to guess," Caroline said immediately.

Bonnie nodded slowly. "Okay. Makes sense."

Caroline bit her lip. "What if it is Katherine, though? What will we do?"

"Then we'll figure out how to get Elena back. Like we always do."

Caroline bit her lip. Was it selfish that she kind of wanted to avoid Elena until she'd made her final decision with Klaus? She knew Elena would try to talk her out of it. Was that a sign that she'd already chosen?

She kind of felt like it was.

"Yeah. Like we always do," she agreed.

* * *

Caroline huffed as Klaus's ringtone (yes, she did have one specifically for him so that she knew _not _to answer it) floated out of her phone's speaker for the third time in ten minutes. She decided that if he rang again she'd bite the bullet and answer (knowing it was basically inevitable at this point).

Sure enough, the phone rang again a few minutes later, and she pushed her laptop away and rolled over on her bed to pick it up, hitting the answer button and bring it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Caroline."

She resisted the urge to scream and throw something at the clench in her core just from him speaking her goddamn _name_. Everything about him was intoxicating, from his stupid compliments to his rough accented tone.

"Klaus."

They were both silent for a moment before Klaus spoke again. "I just wanted to check on you."

"Why?"

"How are you doing, love?"

She decided to ignore the fact that he didn't answer her question and indulge him, hoping he'd go away when she was done. "I'm okay. Kol and I picked his song for his audition. We managed to compel him a last minute slot, and the cast list is going up next week."

"Are you excited?"

"Nervous," she admitted. "Are you already gone?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing yet?"

"I'm sorry, love, but I can't do that."

She huffed, trying to ignore the insistent pull in her lower belly at the way the apology rolled off his tongue. "Are you kidding? You totally could."

"I'll tell you as soon as everything's ready, all right? I promise."

"Sure," she said, rather petulantly, she'd admit.

"I will, love."

_Well, sorry Bonnie..._

She sighed. "Well, did you just call to ask how I was doing and then tell me that you can't tell me anything?"

He laughed quietly, the husky tone sending more jolts of arousal to her lower belly, and she _ached _for him. She knew her breath caught slightly, but thankfully he didn't notice (or, more likely, chose not to comment).

"I called because I wanted to hear your voice."

She clenched her thighs together and narrowed her eyes. So he wanted to play _that _game, huh?

"Yeah?" she asked, her voice dropping slightly, smirking when she heard his quiet gasp.

"Yes."

"Don't _correct_ me just because I don't speak formally like you," she said, purposely misconstruing his words.

He groaned-_groaned_-and she resisted the urge to reach down and slip a hand into her cotton pajama shorts. "Don't tease me, love. And you know perfectly well that's not what I meant."

"What are you talking about? I'm not teasing, and I'm sorry for _taking_ it the wrong way." She was proud that she somehow managed to keep her voice innocent while making it drip with innuendo at the same time.

"Caroline…"

"Niklaus…" she breathed, remembering his words about her use of his full name.

He groaned again, and she could have sworn she heard the clink of metal in the background, as though he was unfastening his pants, and she felt her core throbbing with need, and she knew that her panties were probably already wet with arousal. She took a deep breath. _Stay strong_, _Caroline. _

She was going to give him the worst set of supernatural blue balls in the history of forever.

"Where are you right now, love?"

"My bedroom. Kol's out doing god-knows-what, probably stalking Bonnie, so I'm bored and alone."

"You're in bed?" he asked carefully.

Her nipples were straining against the fabric of her tank top, and she couldn't suppress a gasp as she shifted slightly. "Yes."

She heard the shifting of fabric and knew exactly what was happening, and she smiled wickedly. "Where are you?"

"The hotel room."

"Oh. What time zone are you in? It's kind of late, and I was going to go to bed soon. You called just as I was changing into my pajamas."

Lie, but whatever. His answering mumbled _'Fuck, Caroline_' was enough. She rubbed her thighs together.

"I'm an hour behind you," he said, his voice strained.

"Okay. Well, I have to get up early tomorrow. I promised to go out with Bonnie for breakfast. I'll talk to you soon. Goodnight."

"Caroli–"

She hit the end button and turned her phone off, contentedly pulling the covers around her, a smug smile on her face, letting her hand brush down her abdomen towards the waistband of her cotton shorts.

* * *

He threw his phone across the room, deciding not to worry about the sound of the glass screen cracking. The little minx…

He was painfully hard, and when he closed his eyes, gripping his cock in his hands, all he could see was her in those tiny lace shorts that framed her arse so fucking perfectly when she'd had the nightmare and he'd rushed to her side. He imagined them soaking wet with her arousal, the scent filling his nostrils, her face flushed, lips parted…

He wrapped his hand around his length, flicking his thumb over the tip, pressing his head back into the pillow, lost in his fantasy of Caroline in her bed with her hand creeping under the lace concealing her pussy, her fingers sliding down her slit before rubbing her clit. He imagined how her breasts would press against the front of her camisole...blue, he decided, like her eyes...her nipples pebbled, pressing against the silk fabric.

Her blonde curls would be sticking to her face from sweat as she writhed under the ministrations of her own fingers, her chest heaving with her harsh breaths as she spread her legs to fingerfuck herself, imagining it was his cock inside her instead.

She'd pant out his name, begging him to fill her and fuck her and _claim _her, to mark her with his come.

The image of her materialized in his mind: spread for him on her back, tangled in her sheets, damp with sweat, too sated and comfortable from her orgasm to bother closing her legs, instead letting his come leak down her thighs.

His balls tightened as Imaginary Caroline looked at him and admitted that she wanted to be his. His mate, and he came on his palm, groaning her name.

* * *

**A/N: So, how was that? Did we like Bonnie and Caroline's heart-to-hearts? How do you think the Katherine plot will play out? How do we feel about both Klaus and Caroline shipping Kennett? DID WE LIKE THE KLAND? Also, for all my theatre people, now that we know it's Little Shop of Horrors, what part do we think Kol's going to end up with? ;)  
Let me know your thoughts, and catch me on tumblr at thetourguidebarbie. :)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	6. Let's Make a Deal

**A/N: Thank you to Sophie, D, and Wifey for betawork.  
Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"I'm sorry, I must have heard you wrong. He's _what_?"

"Judging by the incredulity in your voice, I'm going to argue that you most likely heard me correctly."

"Is...is that even _possible?_"

"Well, your ears work, so—"

"Not funny, Kol. I meant is it even possible to turn me into an Original?"

"Apparently, yes."

"How?"

"I only told you what he's doing, not how he's doing it," Kol said uncomfortably, before brightening. "So, about Bonnie…"

Caroline huffed and repeated the rules Bonnie had given her, and Kol shrugged. "I can work with that. Tell her I'll call her."

"Did she give you her number?" Caroline asked, a bit surprised.

"Of course not. I looked in your phone."

"That's an invasion of privacy."

"What, worried I'll stumble across a provocative photo being sent to my brother?"

"I've never sent a provocative photo to Klaus."

"Oh, so you have to Elijah? Or perhaps Finn before your dear friend Matthew killed him."

Caroline just rolled her eyes, though she did note the resentment in his voice when he spoke of Finn's death.

"What do you think she'd like?" Kol asked, changing the subject.

"Aren't you supposed to figure that out?"

"But I want to make a good impression."

Caroline sighed, and resisted the urge to ask the question that had been nagging at her for weeks. Bonnie and Kol had barely any interaction, and what they'd had, from what Caroline understood, was negative. Violent, even. She just didn't understand why Kol was so focused on her friend. She knew that Bonnie could take care of herself, and she had a gut feeling that Kol would never really hurt Bonnie, but all the same, something felt off.

"Why Bonnie, Kol?" she asked abruptly, caving to her rare bout of impulsivity.

"I'm not sure that I understand what you mean," Kol said, his voice low and slightly dangerous.

"I think you know exactly what I mean. Why Bonnie? I mean, I don't exactly blame you, because I have high standards for people that I associate with—don't give me that look, it's rude—and she's my best friend, so that says something. I just want to know that you're not going to hurt her."

"She's smart, interesting, and pleasing to the eye. I don't understand what more I need to explain," Kol said edgily.

"Because there are plenty of girls that are smart, interesting, and _pleasing to the eye_, and you chose Bonnie. Why?"

Kol pursed his lips and propped his feet up on the coffee table, apparently resigned to the fact that he wasn't getting off of their (newly purchased) living room couch any time soon.

"I don't know. I just felt a sort-of pull—"

"Oh, no...Please don't tell me vampires have mates too."

Kol snorted. "Well, one vampire does for sure, and it's not me."

Caroline glared at him.

He gave her an unconcerned shrug of his shoulders before continuing. "Look. Bonnie is special. She's incredibly powerful magically."

"So you like her because she's powerful?"

"Will you let me finish before you start throwing your assumptions in all the wrong directions, please?"

"Sorry."

Kol huffed. "Look. I was daggered in the early 1800s. If you think that Nik's sexist—which I know you do, darling, I've heard you say it—you should have seen the 19th century. Bonnie is smart, funny, and brave, and she's outspoken, which I enjoy. I've never met anyone quite like her. She interests me."

Caroline didn't smile, though she felt a bit better about the whole thing.

Or, at least, she did until Kol suddenly gave her a wicked smile and cocked his head to the side. "Did I pass?"

Caroline leaned forward slowly until she was slightly invading Kol's personal space. He raised an eyebrow, and her eyes narrowed. "If you hurt her, I will tie you up with vervain-soaked ropes and cut off your dick with a white ash dagger, and when it grows back, I'll do it again. Over and over. Do you understand me?"

Kol looked slightly nauseated. "You and Nik are perfect for each other, did you know?"

"Do you understand?" she hissed.

"Yes. I do understand. I'm not an idiot. Now can you please explain to me what I should do for my date with Bonnie?"

**XXX**

"Ready?" Caroline asked as Bonnie as she got out three shot glasses and a bottle of tequila, setting them on the bedside table.

"Ready."

Caroline checked the clock. They still had about fifteen minutes before Elena/Katherine was due to arrive, and she and Bonnie had planned the night carefully. "Okay, so, what do we do if she's Katherine?"

"Pretend everything is normal," Bonnie said. "We'll figure out what to do later."

Caroline nodded, letting out a sharp breath. "So. When's your date with Kol?" Caroline asked.

Bonnie shrugged, sinking down on the bed next to Caroline. "In a few days. He wants to take me to one of the giant indoor flower gardens in the city."

"Really?" Caroline asked, frowning.

She'd suggested a movie and dinner, but Kol apparently had his own ideas. It was smart, she had to admit. Bonnie had always loved nature, and as a witch, that connection was intensified. It was the perfect mix of romantic and personal, and she was a bit surprised Kol had managed to come up with it.

"Yeah," Bonnie said, shrugging.

"And are you excited?" Caroline asked slowly.

"If by 'excited' you mean that a sense of dread has been steadily growing within me since you told me that it was going to happen, then yes."

Bonnie was about to answer when Caroline heard footsteps down the hall, and she gave Bonnie a significant look. Elena (Katherine? Who knew) walked into the room, tossing her purse on the floor. "Hey."

"Hey 'Lena."

"What are we watching?"

"Your favorite movie," Caroline sang.

"What?'

"_Pretty Woman_."

Katherine gave them a huge smile. "Yes! I love that movie."

She knew it was Katherine because Elena would rather _die _than watch five minutes of that movie.

Well, to be fair, Elena would rather die than do a lot of things, but in this instance it seemed extreme enough to be an example.

Still though, they put in the DVD and waited for the menu screen to come up, cuddling up together on the bed, the popcorn resting on Bonnie's lap, who sat in the middle.

"Remember that time that we made popcorn Christmas ornaments in sophomore year?" Caroline asked abruptly, injecting a note of nostalgia into her voice.

"Yeah, totally. You told us you'd never speak to us again," Bonnie said, picking up her cue flawlessly.

Actually, she'd told them that if they didn't stop eating the popcorn they'd get fat and wouldn't be able to fit in their cheerleading uniforms for regionals, but it seemed like a plausible enough lie.

"Remember that Elena?" Caroline prompted.

Katherine got her second strike when she giggled and nodded.

"Drinking game time!" Bonnie said as she passed the popcorn bowl to Katherine and reached over Caroline to grab the tequila bottle off the bedside table, settling it between her knees. Caroline passed the other girls shot glasses. "Whenever Kit says 'fuck', Edward Lewis is on the phone, or Vivian's naked, take a shot."

"We know the rules, Bon," Caroline said, grabbing another handful of popcorn.

They started the movie, and when they downed their first shot, Katherine didn't even grimace.

Elena _hated _tequila.

Strike three.

**XXX**

Klaus perked up as he heard the ringtone he'd assigned to Caroline float through the air, and pulled out his phone as quickly as possible, swiping the screen to answer.

"Hello, love."

"What the actual fuck is your problem?"

"Which one are you speaking of?" he asked, attempting to use humor to diffuse the situation. It didn't work.

"Don't be an asshole. It's not cute. And I mean the one where you've decided to turn me into an Original _without asking_."

"How did you—"

"Kol," she growled. "And judging from that reaction, I"m assuming that you weren't going to tell me until you did the spell?"

He winced. "I would have told you beforehand," he said, not even sounding convincing to his own ears.

"Don't lie to me, Klaus."

"I just want to keep you safe."

"Well, I don't want you to do it. It seems a bit unnecessary."

"But there is literally nothing bad that can come out of it," he argued, trying to be reasonable. "Name one negative consequence."

"You can dagger me," she said straightforwardly. "And if you'll put your own family in a box, how do I know that you won't if I disagree with you?"

"I would never do that," he said, a bit surprised at her reasoning.

"You say that now," she mumbled.

"Caroline, you're my mate. I could never hurt you."

"Which is why you bit me and stabbed me with a lamppost," she pointed out.

"My brother had just _died_, and the boy my _mate _was seeing was mocking me for it. I'm not saying it makes it all right, but there are extenuating circumstances there."

"Fair enough," she mumbled.

"And if you were an Original, the werewolf bite wouldn't kill you," he said cajolingly.

He heard her huff on the other side of the line, and smirked, smoothing his voice. "Please, Caroline, just consider it."

"Klaus…"

"Please, sweetheart? You don't have to say yes. Just think about it."

He pushed down a smile as she took in a sharp breath. "Fine. I'll think about it," she said, her voice slightly strangled.

"Thank you," he said, keeping his voice soft and slightly seductive.

"Besides your secretive douchery, we have another problem," Caroline said tightly, clearly trying to ignore him.

"What sort of problem?"  
"Katherine is stuck in Elena's body, and she won't tell us how she got there."

Klaus froze, all plans of seduction fleeing his mind immediately. "Is she?"

"Yes. Why do you sound happy? This isn't a good thing, Klaus."

"She can help."

"Help with what?"

"The spell."

"I told you. I don't want to do that spell."

"And then you told me that you'd think about it. Once I get the ritual ready, we can talk about whether you actually want to go through with it. I've made significant progress, and I'd rather have it on hand just in case."

"Whatever. How would Katherine help with the spell?"

"We need the blood of a doppelganger for the spell, and if I know Katerina Petrova, which I do fairly well, I would wager that she knows more about doppelgangers that almost anyone alive."

"Will her blood work even though she's a vampire?"

"No, but she can easily help us locate the new doppelganger."

"There's a new one already? I thought that they were only born once every hundred years, and in case you didn't notice, Elena is a doppelganger, and she was born less than 20 years ago."

"Common myth, love. Doppelgangers are always born within a year of the last one dying. They don't need to be in the same family line, though it's more likely that they will be born in the Petrova line than any other. Since Elena died about two years ago, there should be a one year old Petrova doppelganger toddling around somewhere in a pre-school."

"You cannot kill a baby to make me an Original!"

Klaus resisted the urge to point out that he could do whatever he damn well pleased if it would protect her, instead opting for the diplomatic route. "We wouldn't be killing the baby. We'd simply take a little blood. Only a teaspoon or so."

"But it's a _baby_."

Klaus decided not to acknowledge her rather weak rebuttal, instead trying to steer the conversation back to the matter at hand. "I need to speak with Katerina."

"She's not here right now. Plus, I want Elena back, and I think that's a bit more important than the spell."

"Well, we can't put her back until I speak with Katerina."

"But Elena's my best friend."

"How do you know that it's Katerina?"

"Just some behavioral stuff, plus she didn't know about a childhood memory that Elena definitely would have remembered."

"Well, I'm sorry love, but we can't put her back yet."

"I'll find a way."

He sighed. "We don't even know if it's possible, love."

"I'll make it possible."

"While I do not doubt that there is some way to do it, I'd really rather wait."

There was silence on the other end of the line before Caroline sighed. "You're anxious and it's making me anxious."

"I wouldn't be if you'd just agree to wait."

"Fine. I'll give you a week. And Katherine has to do Elena's homework."

"That's not exactly up to me, love."

He felt a foreign tug of annoyance in his gut and rolled his eyes. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," she said primly.

"How are you doing?"

He heard her laugh quietly. "I'm doing fine. You?"

"Better now that I'm talking to you," he admitted.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she said, though he could hear the smile in her voice.

"It's not flattery if it's true."

She laughed. "Whatever you say."

"I'll be back next week, and I'll show you."

"Stop it with the voice," she snapped.

"The voice?" he asked, a bit amused.

"Yes. That—the voice that you do when you're trying to...to _seduce _me, or whatever."

"Is it working?" he asked.

He grinned as he heard her let out a soft moan. "No," she said irritably, though she sounded a bit breathless, and then the line went dead.

**XXX**

There was something wrong.

She could tell as soon as she opened her eyes and saw Caroline and Bonnie standing in front of her, looking angry. They were in a jail cell, and when Katherine tried to move, she found herself tied down.

God, she _hated _being a baby vampire. One year of strength was a hell of a lot less than 600.

"What's going on?" she asked, adding a quiver of fear to her voice that wasn't entirely manufactured.

"We know you're Katherine."

Oh, well that explained it.

"What do you want?" she asked, not bothering to keep up the Elena act.

"We want Elena back."

"Sorry, that's not happening. It's permanent."

Caroline shook her head frantically. "It can't be. There's no such thing as a permanent spell."

"Believe what you want, cupcake. It's permanent."

Caroline and Bonnie glowered at her. "Look, we're going to find a way to break the spell, but we'll make you a deal," Bonnie said.

"You won't break it."

"You should probably listen to our proposal anyway, _cupcake_, since there's nothing to lose," Caroline snapped.

"Fine. What?"

"We need to find the next doppelganger."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "And why would I want to help you with that?"

"Because if you do, we'll keep you alive when we break the spell."

Katherine's eyes narrowed. "My old body is human. Decomposing in the ground right now."

"We'll find a new body," Caroline said, shrugging.

"But I don't _want _a new body. I want _my _body."

"Well, better alive in a foreign body than dead without one. Besides, if you're so sure that we won't break the spell, you have nothing to lose," Caroline said. "And we'll _owe _you."

That seemed to be the clincher, and Katherine's eyes narrowed.

"Fine, I'll help you, but on one condition."

"What's that?" Bonnie asked suspiciously.

Katherine turned to glare at Caroline. "My freedom. For real this time. My freedom _and _my right to be with Elijah, if he...if he'll take me back," she said, slightly ashamed of how close to shaking her voice was at the end.

"Done," Caroline said immediately, before pulling out her phone and holding it up to her ear.

"I have her," Caroline said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Yeah, I"ll put you on speaker."

"Katerina," Klaus said, his voice crackling over line. "I have a task for you."

"Oh. Just what I've always wanted."

"Now, Katerina, you wouldn't want me to go back on the terms of our deal, would you? Just because you would make it easier to find the doppelganger doesn't mean you're not replaceable."

"Fine," Katherine said through gritted teeth, inwardly cursing every fucking deity she could think of.

"I know that you have information on your distant relatives. You've kept track of them over the years, just in case one of your shadow selves was born. Haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'd like you to send me the information so that I can pay them each a little visit, just to see if it's possible that any of the recently born children are doppelgangers."

"Fine. I'll send you the information once your goddamn girlfriend lets me out of these ropes."

"Ahh, yes. About that, Katerina. You will tell absolutely no one that Caroline is my mate, or that she's even associated with me. Do you understand?"

"Whatever."

She heard him chuckle, and gritted her teeth as Caroline picked up the phone again. "I"ll talk to you later," she said, before pausing and frowning. "_What_? No. No, Klaus..."

She sighed, apparently annoyed by whatever he was saying (Katherine cursed Elena's weak baby vampire ears for what must have been the thousandth time).

"No...Ugh. Fine. _Fine_," Caroline growled, hanging up and turning to Katherine, her hands on her hips.

"You're staying with me and Kol in our apartment, but I swear to god I will keep your neck perpetually snapped if you so much as _touch _my closet."

"Oh, like I'd want any of your grandma cardigans anyway," Katherine sneered, inwardly a bit relieved.

She hadn't been kidding when she'd talked to Matt. She much preferred Caroline to Bonnie.

And who knew, maybe she could use the time to try to establish a friendship with the girl. If all went well with Elijah, they'd be in each others' lives for a very long time.

Which reminded her, she should really give Elijah a call.

**XXX**

Caroline took a deep breath as she walked down the hallway to the bulletin board where the parts would be posted. Kol was trailing behind her, texting on his phone, not paying attention, and when Caroline stopped in front of the board, Kol knocked into her, snatching his phone out of the air when he fumbled and nearly dropped it.

Caroline felt a smile stretch across her face. "I got Audrey!" she yelled happily, practically jumping up and down.

"That's great, darling," Kol said distractedly, peering over her shoulder. "The dentist. Hmm."

"That part is perfect for you," Caroline informed him, still unable to wipe the smile off of her face. "Hold on, I need to call Bon—" she paused as her phone rang.

She pulled it out and pressed the talk button. "Hello?" she asked, even though she knew perfectly well who it was.

"I take it from the intense and foreign feeling of excitement I have been experiencing for the past few moments that your part was posted?" Klaus asked, his voice hoarse as though he'd just woken up.

"Were you in bed?" she asked without thinking, her pussy clenching as she listened.

He chuckled, and she felt heat pool inside her at the sound of it. "Yes. I'm three hours behind you. It's six thirty here."

"I'm sorry," she said, not sure exactly what she was apologizing for.

"It's all right, my love."

She fought down a moan, trying to ignore Kol's slightly nauseated face as he backed away slowly.

"What are you up to?" she asked, slightly breathless.

"I'm just about to talk to a witch in Portland about using a different natural anchor than a white oak tree."

"Why?"

"There are too many people that know that the white oak stake has the power to kill us. Since we have the opportunity to use a different natural anchor, I'd rather it wasn't as predictable."

"What do you mean create another natural anchor?" Caroline asked, frowning.

"When my family and I were turned into vampires, the white oak tree was used as an anchor for the spell, as was the vervain powder and a solar eclipse, and that's why those three things are our weaknesses. Theoretically, we could have used any natural anchor as long as it was strong enough to channel the spell."

"So you're saying that you want to give me different weaknesses?" she asked slowly.

He sighed from the other end of the line, and she tried to ignore the way that it made her stomach flip.

"Essentially, yes. I was hoping to anchor it to an endangered tree to replace the white oak stake, which would make it much harder to find. I've taken the liberty of having Antarctic hairgrass imported to serve as the vervain equivalent."  
"You're taking this pretty seriously."

"You're my mate," he said simply, as though it explained everything. "Now, back to the musical…"

"I got the part I wanted," she said gleefully.

"Congratulations, sweetheart. I'm very happy for you."

"Thanks."

"I'll be home in just a few days. We should celebrate."

"Okay."

"Anyway, I've got to run, love. I'm meeting with the witch in a few hours, and I need to shower and get ready."

She couldn't help but picture him in the shower, water droplets running down the sinewy muscles of his naked body, and flushed slightly. "You're doing that on purpose."

"Doing what?" he asked, his voice deceptively innocent.

She huffed. "Whatever, we can talk later."

"We certainly can," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

"That's not what I meant."

"I'm sure it wasn't. Farewell for now."

She snorted. "Farewell," she mocked. "I'll see you when you get home."

She hung up the phone and stuck it into her purse, calling for Kol to follow her as she left the building. It took her until she'd started the car to realize her slip of the tongue.

_Home._

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! How did we like the chapter? Are we excited to see how Katherine will help? Do we think Kalijah is on the horizon? Are we happy about the Kennett development? I'm not sure whether I want to put their date in or not, but if you want it, you should let me know. Excited for the musical? Did we like the klaroline development? Any predictions? Tell me everything! :D  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	7. Acceptance

**A/N: Hey everyone :) There is now a drabble series that takes place in the same universe as this fic called "Under My Roof," which chronicles Kol, Katherine, and Caroline's journey as roommates. The drabble series is not necessary to enjoy this story :)  
Thank you to D, Sophie, and Wifey for betawork.**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"_Hello, welcome to American Airlines flight 1648 with domestic service from Portland to the Richmond International Airport. In case of an emergency…"_

Klaus sighed and leaned his head back against the headrest of his first class seat. It had been three days since Caroline had been told who she was to play in her performance, and he was excited to celebrate with her when he got back.

From her use of the word 'home', he was hoping said celebration might be less platonic than he'd expected.

He'd just accepted a seltzer water from the flight attendant when he felt it. The foreign feeling of panic in his stomach gripped him like ice, and he almost felt like his lungs were collapsing.

"Sir, are you all right?" the flight attendant asked.

"Yes, just feeling a bit sick. Afraid of flying," he lied through gritted teeth, shutting his eyes.

He concentrated very hard on Caroline and managed to make out her side table, and felt his lungs burn before he lost the connection with her completely, and suddenly felt strangely empty.

She was dead.

He pulled out his phone, compelling the flight attendant to shut up without even thinking about it as he dialed Caroline's number. It rang a few times before her voice came over the line.

"_Hi. You've reached Caroline. Please leave your name and number and I'll try to get back to you ASAP. Bye!"_

"Caroline, I need you to call me back as soon as you get this," he said, trying to ignore that his voice _almost _cracked.

She couldn't be gone.

He hung up and dialed Kol, who also didn't answer.

He was about to dial the Bennett witch when his phone lit up with a number he didn't recognize. He hoped it was a ransom, or at least some sort of information about Caroline.

"Hello?"

"She's fine," Katherine said without preamble.

"What have you done?"

"It wasn't me. It was your genius brother. I came back to the apartment from class a few minutes ago and she and Kol are both dead on the floor. I saw some containers in the bathroom and I think Kol was trying to clean it and didn't realize mixing ammonia and bleach wasn't such a good idea."

"So she'll wake up?" he asked, not even registering how desperate he sounded.

"Yes. I'll stay with her."

He sighed in relief before realizing the person he was speaking with, and letting his lips curl into a smirk. "Don't tell me you've come to care for my mate, Katerina?"

There was silence on the other end of the line before Katherine spoke again. "I'm sure she'll call when she wakes up."

"Good, I'll be in transit, but please have her leave me a message." he said, before pausing, grimacing at what he was about to do. "Thank you, Katerina."

"Did my ears deceive me, or did Klaus Mikaelson–"

Klaus snarled and hung up the phone, massaging his temples. He just had to ignore the niggling fear in his gut. He didn't trust Katerina Petrova any more than he trusted his dear mother. However, both were alike in that if their personal motives matched up to yours, there was no one better to be aligned with. They were ruthless, manipulative, and alarmingly intelligent.

He'd always said Elijah had an Oedipus complex.

He took deep breaths, clutching the armrests of his seat, knowing he'd be unable to relax until he knew with complete certainty that Caroline was safe. He tried not to make indents on the plastic, knowing that it was most likely a lost cause, and made a mental note to call Rebekah at some point to see if she couldn't sweet talk Elijah into getting them a private jet.

It had only been about an hour when he felt a foreign rush of confusion and exasperation, and he smiled, content that Caroline was safe.

...until he felt the cold emptiness of her death again.

Snarling, he pulled out his cell phone, barked at the flight attendant to leave him be (to the clear disgust of the other passengers), not particularly caring if he fucked up the satellite signal for the plane. Katherine answered Caroline's phone on the first ring.

"Kol snapped her neck."

"The little chit was talking back to me, darling. Can't blame me," he heard Kol's voice float from the background, accompanied by slurping of what was probably a blood bag.

He hung up without responding and checked the time on his phone. It would be another six hours before he arrived in Richmond. He'd probably run to Whitmore rather than drive. It would be faster.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat until he felt the pleasant hum that indicated that Caroline was alive before allowing himself to relax slightly.

**XXX**

Caroline had been feeling anxious since she'd woken up from Kol snapping her neck, and she wasn't sure why. It had come out of nowhere. She had nothing to be particularly anxious about (besides the usual, anyway), and it took her awhile to realize that it was probably Klaus.

Which made her realize that he knew she'd died.

When she said as much to Katherine, the other girl nodded and told Caroline very bluntly that Kol was probably in very deep trouble. And really, Caroline couldn't have that. Their first rehearsal was the next day, and she wasn't about to have her performance ruined because Kol couldn't follow some simple directions.

She oversaw him clean the bathroom _correctly_, ignoring his muttered death threats, before sinking down on the couch to watch some television.

She was sucked into the black hole of binge-watching when she heard the front door slam open and Klaus zoomed to stop in front of her, and she felt his relief, warm in her belly. "I'm glad you're safe," he said.

"Me too."

He twitched as though he wanted to touch her, but kept himself in check, and she rolled her eyes, standing up to pull him into a hug. The reaction of her body was instant and intense. She felt the heat of him envelop her as he held her, her skin impossibly sensitive to his touch. "I'm fine," she said quietly.

She could feel his breath against her, his chest rising and falling as he inhaled her scent, and she felt an ache start in her core. She felt so safe wrapped up in his arms, and he began to play with the ends of her hair, his palm stroking her back, and she had to hold back a moan at the casual touch, feeling a stab of arousal hit her pussy. She pressed her forehead against his shoulder, her hands winding in the fabric of his shirt, gripping it tightly, and she could feel his lips curl into a smile as he rested his cheek on her head.

She could feel her nipples pebble against the fabric of her bra, and almost wanted to rock her hips against him as she felt him harden against her thigh as she shifted, groaning softly in her ear.

There was movement from the doorway, and both of them looked up to see Kol standing there, looking surprised and a bit scared. It appeared he had a right to be as Klaus was out of her arms with Kol pressed against the wall within a second.

"Klaus," Caroline shouted. "Let him go."

"He killed you," Klaus snarled.

"The first time wasn't on purpose."

"And the second?"

"He'd died a few times in a row, Klaus. He was weak and starving and I was yelling at him."

"Not an excuse."

Caroline walked up to him and gently pried his fingers away from Kol's neck, which wouldn't have worked if he hadn't let her. "Klaus, he's in the musical. I need him to be at rehearsal tomorrow."

Klaus scoffed, glaring at his brother, but obligingly stepped aside, expecting Kol to move past him. Instead, Kol stood there and gave Klaus a disgusted glare.

"I died five times in a row because your little girlfriend couldn't be bothered to tell me about the dangers of the modern world. I _suffered _for _hours _in that room, Nik. I woke up _starving _from it, and all you can think of is the fact that I snapped her neck when I knew she would wake up?"

Caroline could hear the undercurrent of hurt in Kol's voice, and she suddenly felt horribly guilty, not having considered the situation from Kol's point of view. He must have felt utterly helpless, not knowing what had gone wrong and simply suffocating from the chemicals repeatedly, but before either her or Klaus could speak, Kol was gone.

Caroline winced and turned to Klaus. "I feel awful."

"He'll get over it. He always does," Klaus said quietly.

"Are you sure?" Caroline asked, her tone biting, making Klaus turn to her in surprise. "He just seems to want you to care about him, really. He's your brother, Klaus. Is that too much to ask?"

She felt a stab of anger, and she wasn't sure which of them it belonged to (or if it was both), but Klaus gritted his teeth, his voice low as he spoke through them. "Do not speak of things you do not understand."

She opened her mouth to respond, but he pushed on. "Do you understand how it felt to be on that plane, seven hours away, and helpless? To get a glimpse through your eyes as you suffocated? To not know what had happened to you?"

"You saw through my eyes? What does that even _mean_?"

"It means that my theory was correct, and that if I concentrate very hard and you are feeling intense emotions, I can get small glimpses of what's going on."

"That's invading my privacy," she said, inwardly thinking that it must have been terrifying.

He must have read her face, because his next words chilled her. "It felt like I lost a part of me I didn't know was there. I felt...empty. I hope you never have to experience it."

A thousand thoughts seemed to run through her head during that moment, but only two were overwhelmingly present.

There was some sort of part of her that could _feel _him. There was a hum in her body, a current running through it, and somehow she knew that it was what was making her feel whole.

When she was human, she had definitely been 'one of those girls' who thought that she needed someone else to complete her. She felt alone without someone. She'd learned since becoming a vampire that it wasn't necessarily true. She didn't need someone to feel complete. And yet, being with Klaus made her feel like she was alive. She never wanted to know what it would be like to lose that feeling-that _wholeness_. Now that she'd had it, she couldn't imagine it being gone.

The other thought-the _realization_-was that she understood why he wanted to make her an Original now. She would feel the same way in his place, she realized.

"Klaus...I…" she breathed, trailing off, unsure what to say.

He just smiled slightly, pressing his forehead against hers, his breath clouding her face, a mix of coppery blood and mint toothpaste that was strangely enticing. Or maybe it was just enticing because it was him.

She'd bet on the latter.

"I know."

She took a deep breath, feeling the shiver go through her body. "Klaus...I didn't mean to make it sound like you didn't have a right to be angry. I just don't want you to fight with your family. They're important to you, and it really was an accident."

"I know," he said again.

She bit her lip, thinking about what she was about to do, what she was about to admit, and she saw his eyes darken, his hands seeming to instinctively tighten on her waist. Her core tightened with arousal almost _painfully, _and she wasn't sure how to say it so that it came out how she wanted it to.

But whether she said it perfectly or not, he had to know. It was floating in the air between them, and she could tell that he could feel her body stiffen as she took a deep breath, her body quivering at the tight softness of his grip, his body so near to hers.

"I think you were right," she said quietly.

He frowned, almost instinctively moving closer to her. "About what, love?"

"I would hate that feeling."

His lips curled into a wicked smile, so different from his previous expression, and her undead heart seemed to thump in her chest as she could almost feel the phantom brush of them against her neck, the imaginary kiss making another, harsher stab of arousal hit her. "What feeling?"

"Losing my mate," she whispered.

Suddenly, everything seemed to calm around her, a calming breath whooshing out of her as her body stopped vibrating with need.

"What's happening?"

"You finally accepted it. The mating. The bond isn't trying to push us together anymore."

"That's what that was?" she asked, remaining in his arms, completely comfortable with their contact.

He nodded. "If you think of it as a sentient spell, which it really isn't, it was trying to tempt us together in hopes that you would accept the bond."

"So...I'm not going to be uncomfortably...aroused whenever you're around?" she asked, half relieved and half disappointed.

He smirked. "That depends. Would you like to be?"

She scoffed. "It was pretty inconvenient, to be honest."

He shrugged. "I liked it. I liked watching the effect it had on you."

"Of course you did," she mumbled, moaning as his hands slipped under her blouse to stroke her back. "Klaus, what are you doing?"

"Touching you," he said, as though it should be obvious. "Do you want me to stop?"

She bit her lip as the arousal she'd let go came back with full force, the intensity shaking through her body. "No," she said quietly, her eyelids fluttering shut.

"What do you want, love?"

She cracked one eye open, glaring at him. "Are you serious right now?"

"I told you that you would have to come to me the first time. It's your choice."

"I don't remember that."

"I do. I believe my exact words were that you would spread your legs for me and beg me for it."

She snorted rather inelegantly. "Yeah, fat chance. Is this where you tell me I have to submit?"

His lips curled into a small smile. "In a manner of speaking, yes. I _am _the alpha male, love."

"Does that make me the alpha female?"

"Yes."

"So why do I have to submit to you? Why can't it be the other way around?" she asked, genuinely curious.

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that really what you want, Caroline? Do you want to make me beg? To ride my cock and make me desperate for you?"

She felt her face heat as he spoke in her ear, and she felt foreign pictures filling her mind, and realized it was Klaus's imagination of her riding him, her eyes black, fangs jutted out, and she rubbed her thighs together.

"Or do you want this?"

A very different set of images flooded into her mind. Him taking her from behind while she screamed into a pillow. Her on her knees, his cock in her mouth while he pressed her head down lightly, murmuring the most delicious things. Him pinning her wrists above her head while she begged for him, her legs around his waist. She felt her breath catch, her pussy clenching around nothing.

"I think you've found your answer," he said quietly, his voice husky.

She didn't answer verbally, instead gripping the front of his shirt and pulling him down for a heated kiss.

He wound his fingers into her hair, the other hand pulling her flush against him by the small of her back, his lips moving with hers as he thrust his tongue into her mouth.

She moaned, her hands fisting his shirt, and he sped them to her bedroom, pushing her onto the bed. She responded by pulling him down so that he was lying on top of her, her legs wrapped around his waist, grinding her core against the prominent bulge in his jeans.

He pulled back to lick and suck at her neck, and she moaned loudly, a stab of arousal hitting her core, making him smile against her skin. "Shh," he mumbled. "Don't want neighbors to overhear you beg, do you?"

She moaned again, more softly this time, when he stroked her abdomen, his palms running up her skin to cup her breasts through her bra under her shirt, brushing his thumbs against her nipples, which were pebbled against the fabric.

"Klaus…"

He roughly pressed his lips against hers again, quieting her, and she reached down to rub him through the fabric of his jeans, making him groan against her mouth.

She started to unzip his jeans, but he grabbed her hand and pinned it to the mattress. "Patience. Spread your legs, lift your hips."

He smirked when she did so, letting him pull her jeans down her legs and bunch them up on the end of the bed.

He hooked a finger around her thong, tugging it down to her knees and running a finger lightly along her slit. She moaned, instinctively spreading her legs a bit farther and winding her fingers into the sheets as he pushed a finger in, and then another, pumping them in and out slowly.

She raised her hips to meet the thrusts of his fingers, and couldn't help the gasps and moans that came from her, filling the room.

"Do you like that?" he asked as he curled his fingers slightly, making her moan and nod.

"Tell me."

"Yes. Harder, Klaus."

He slowed his fingers in response and she wriggled against him, trying to rock her hips against his fingers. "Klaus…"

He brushed his thumb lightly over her clit and she moaned, her orgasm building much more quickly as he seemed to instinctively know all of her sweet spots.

"Fuck, you're loud," he mumbled, leaning down to bite her ear harshly, running his tongue along the shell of it, making her hips jerk.

"Sorry…?" she half-asked, panting as he continued to rub her clit, his erection very noticeable against her bare thigh until he shifted to loom higher above her, pulling his fingers away and tearing her thong off, letting the fabric fall to the floor before wedging one of his thighs between hers, not stopping the movements of his thumb against her clit, and she gasped loudly as she rubbed herself against the rough fabric of his jeans.

"I like it when you scream for me," he said simply, his voice low and rough.

Pressing his thigh against her pussy, he tore her blouse and bra off easily, cupping her breasts in his hands and tweaking her nipples roughly, making her moan again.

"Do you want me to make you come, Caroline?"

"Yes," she gasped, lost in a haze of his burning touch on her skin, quivering at the pleasure of it.

"All you have to do is ask," he whispered.

"Please."

"Not good enough. Beg for me to make you come while you rut against my thigh like a bitch in heat."

She let out a soft whimper at his words, rolling her hips and fisting the sheets so hard her knuckles turned white. She'd never felt this desperately close before, even in the woods. Her skin was damp with sweat and her core was empty and _aching_ with need, and Klaus just smirked from above her, probably enjoying the way her face must be twisting as she tried to make herself come without needing to beg.

She gave up soon enough, her voice dropping to a soft whimper. "Klaus, please…"

"What happened to screaming for me, love?"

She shook her head, panting as he raked his fingernails down her hips, pressing his thigh against her more roughly.

"Scream for me," he ordered.

"Klaus," she moaned, still keeping her voice as quiet as possible, mindful of their neighbors (and who knew if Katherine and Kol were home).

"Scream."

She shook her head, moving her hips frantically against her thigh, which he responded to by pressing her hips roughly into the mattress, stilling their movements. "Don't you want me to fuck you, Caroline? To shove my cock into your pussy and make you come around me? To flip you over and shove your face into the pillows and claim you from behind?"

"Yes," she gasped, abandoning the goal of being quiet. "Yes, please."

"Louder."

"Please, Klaus," she moaned, her whimpers and gasps soon filling the room as he freed his erection, tugged her legs apart, and buried himself in her, moving one hand to pin her wrists above her head, the other tweaking her nipple while he moved down to nibble her neck.

"Do you like it when I whisper filthy words in your ear, love?" he asked against her skin, darting out his tongue to taste it.

"Yes," she panted. "Klaus, I'm so close, please."

He moved faster, his balls slapping against her skin as he grabbed her calves, tugging her to him so that her legs were spread wide and her hips at an angle so that he could drive into her more deeply, and she could see him smiling wickedly as she screamed his name repeatedly, writhing under him.

"Come," he demanded, squeezing his palms around her skin. "Come for me."

She clenched around him hard, swearing under her breath as he fucked her through her orgasm, rapidly approaching his own. "I'm going to try something," he warned, his eyes turning yellow as his fangs dropped.

He waited until she nodded, her face damp with sweat, before burying his fangs in her neck, drinking from her and spilling inside her. He pulled back, her blood on his lips, and licked them, keeping eye contact with her, making her shiver.

"I need your blood," she whispered.

He studied her face for a second before brushing aside her hair, stroking the spot where he'd bitten her, two small scars on her neck from the puncture wound. He smirked.

"No, love. You don't."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. How do we feel about how the mate bond is progressing? What do we think about the progression (or lack thereof) in Kol and Klaus's relationship. Any predictions about the quest to find the doppelganger? Do we think anything will change now that Caroline has accepted the bond? Tell me your thoughts! :D  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	8. Give and Take

**A/N: I've been on a Domme!Caroline kick recently. Idk wtf is going on, but there's some in this. I hope you like it.**  
**Thanks to Sophie, D, and Wifey for beta work.**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

Caroline awoke slowly, stirring in Klaus's arms, causing him to pull her firmly to his chest in his sleep. She shifted so that she could run a finger over the scar on her neck. It had been pronounced the night before, but it seemed to have faded a bit from the feel of the patch of skin.

She could feel his morning erection pressing into the curve of her ass and smirked to herself. It was a huge power high to know that he wanted her every second of the day, and though she had enjoyed giving herself to him in submission, she wanted to try taking.

She twisted in his arms in a sudden movement, surprising him enough when his eyes flew open to push him flat on the bed and straddle him, pressing her mouth to his. His hands wound into her hair and he groaned as she rolled her hips against his, and she took the opportunity to thrust her tongue into his mouth.

She pulled back, pulling his lip with her teeth and letting go, her gaze holding his. "Good morning," he said, his hands running down her back.

She rolled her hips against his again, taking great pleasure in how he let out a low groan, his eyelids fluttering shut as he bucked against her core. He grabbed her ass and rolled them over, but she was ready, and locked her knees around him, rolling them right back.

"Last night, you claimed me," she said, keeping her voice firm. "It's my turn this morning. I'm claiming you."

"Oh?" he asked, the eyebrow raise just making her more determined.

She'd make him _beg_.

Bending down, she molded her lips over his again, her hands stroking down his naked chest. He was hard against her, and she smiled into the kiss, pulling back and rolling her hips against him. He groaned, his palms gripping her hips. She wrapped her hands around his wrists, tugging them off of her hips and pinning them to the bed on either side of his head.

He looked rather amused at her actions, and she tried not to let it shake her confidence. She'd never done the whole 'dirty talk' thing before (Damon didn't talk, Matt was about as vanilla as they came, and Tyler usually just focused on getting them both off as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't accidentally bite her), but how hard could it be? She conjured up her fantasies of them in her mind and let her voice fall in tone.

"You're so hard for me, aren't you, Klaus? You want me so badly, don't you?" she breathed, bending down so that she was mumbling her words against his lips. "Keep your hands there," she ordered, reaching down to stroke him slowly.

He groaned and bucked into her hand, but his hands stayed pressed against the mattress, making her smile.

"Do you want to fuck me, Klaus? Do you want to fill me with your cock and feel my pussy clench around you?"

"Yes," he said quietly, his heated gaze fixed on hers.

She smirked. "I'm glad. I'm going to make you beg for me to ride you, Klaus."

He raised an eyebrow, and she matched his expression, slowing her strokes of his cock before removing her hand entirely, making him groan softly. "Too proud to beg for me, Niklaus?" she asked, smirking as he swore softly at the use of his full name. "Oh, do you like that?"

He didn't answer, simply giving her a heated glare and letting out a sharp intake of breath when she let her fingernails scratch across his nipples. "I think you do," she said quietly, leaning down to kiss his jaw lightly.

"Caroline–-"

"Shh, don't want the neighbors to hear you beg to fuck me, do you?" she whispered teasingly against his skin, mocking his words from the night before.

"You're very confident, love."

He started to move his hands, but she let her fangs descend, blackened veins creeping across her cheeks, and grabbed his wrists, pinning them down next to his head. "I told you not to move."

He seemed mildly surprised, but kept his wrists where she put them, looking up at her with something like wonder in his eyes. She moved down his body again, settling between his legs and gripping his cock in her hand, stroking him slowly. He watched through hooded eyes, groaning when she brushed her thumb along the tip.

She stroked him slowly-too slowly, she knew-and she could tell that he was getting impatient. "Do you want me to go faster?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, his teeth gritted.

"Ask me."

"No."

She shrugged. "Fine," she said before bending down to give his shaft a long, hard lick, deliberately swirling her tongue around the tip of him, making him groan loudly before she pulled back, going back to moving her hand up and down lightly.

"Do you want me to take you into my mouth? Do you want to feel your cock hit the back of my throat?"

"Yes."

"Ask."

He glared before swearing again when she bent over him, letting her breath fall onto the tip of him, which was leaking precum. "Just ask for what you want and I'll give it to you," she said cajolingly.

"Or I could flip you over and take you against the mattress," he growled.

"No. You had your turn," she said softly, bending down to lick him again.

"Fuck, Caroline."

"Just ask," she said, looking up at him from her position between his legs, deliberately letting her tongue wet her lips.

His eyes flashed gold.

She got back up onto her hands and knees and crawled towards him slowly, looming over his body, her breasts swaying as she moved while she arched her back more than strictly necessary, knowing that he'd be able to see how wet she was in the mirror behind her that was right in his line of vision.

She was going on pure instinct now, just acting on what her first impulses were, and it appeared to be working.

"You are mine," she whispered, trailing a fingernail down his cheek, and smirking at his audible swallow. "My mate."

"Caroline," he hissed as she reached down to grasp him, rubbing herself against him before withdrawing and bending to bite his earlobe.

"Do you want me?"

"Yes."

"You can have me. You just have to ask."

"No."

"Then maybe you don't want me enough. Don't you want me to ride you? To let you bury your cock in me while I rock my hips against you? To tell you how good you feel inside me?"

"Yes."

"Then _ask_," she whispered again, letting her teeth scrape against his neck.

"Caroline, please," he finally managed through gritted teeth.

"Please _what_?"

"Please let me fuck you," he said, and she could see how hard the words were for him to get out.

She bent down and kissed him roughly, thrusting her tongue into his mouth before pulling up to position him at her entrance and sink down, moaning loudly as he filled her. "You feel so good," she gasped, resisting the urge to begin moving.

"Caroline…" he said warningly.

She gave him wide innocent eyes, biting her lip to fight down her smirk. "What? Do you want me to move?"

"Yes."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Please, Caroline."

She took pity on him, rolling her hips against his, soon getting lost in the sensation of him thrusting into her, reaching down to rub her clit as she bounced on top of him, her head thrown back. "Yes, Niklaus, just like that," she gasped, noting that he muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like a foreign curse word.

"You feel so good inside me. I love how you fuck me. I want you to come in me," she said, keeping her voice low.

He moved faster, and she felt herself approaching her peak. It only took a few more thrusts and a light pinch to her clit to tip her over the edge, and she moaned his name as she clenched around him. His climax followed within moments, and she collapsed on top of him, her fingers curling around his wrists to bring his palms to her lower back as she rested on top of him.

"You're mine," she mumbled against the skin of his neck, licking and nipping at it lazily.

"And I always will be, my love."

She hummed in contentment, burying her face in his shoulder. "So," she started, her voice muffled, "Why did the bite heal?"

"I have a few theories, but I'd like to see a witch to make sure."

"Okay."

"What are your plans for the day?"

"We have our first rehearsal at two o'clock. I think Kol's going out with Bonnie around eleven."

She was interrupted by a clattering as the front door opened, and Caroline heard the click of heels against the tile floor of the kitchen. "Is it safe yet?" Katherine called.

"I don't know. They sound like they've finished, but you can never be sure. I suggest proceeding with caution," Kol said tiredly from the room next door.

Klaus just rolled his eyes and pulled her closer so that she was cuddled against his front, her face pressing against his shoulder, and pulled the blankets up to cover them, closing his eyes.

**XXX**

This was not going well.

Kol suppressed a huff of annoyance as Bonnie boredly looked at the flowers as they walked past. He had seen the wonder and huge smile she'd had before she'd remembered who she was with and suppressed it, and he just couldn't figure out what the fuck her problem was.

He had been on his very best behavior. He hadn't insulted a single person, hadn't said even _one _inappropriate thing, and yet she was still cold. He understood that she wasn't exactly required to like him, but he knew she was attracted to him, and that she was tempted.

Bonnie was a good person. She'd made her share of mistakes and bad decisions, and was occasionally judgy and _definitely _self-righteous, but at heart, a good person.

And Kol? Well, he wasn't.

And Bonnie knew it.

Witches tended to be a bit high-and-mighty by nature, and Bonnie was no exception. She was interesting and had strong opinions, and she was perfectly happy to tell him if he was wrong about something. He had originally found those qualities endearing, especially since they were rather rare in the last time period he'd been in, but her self-righteousness was starting to get on his nerves.

She was looking at the part of the garden he was pointing at, her lip curled, and honestly he'd had enough.

"What did I do?" he asked, stopping right in the middle of his enthusiastic explanation about how orchids could be used in elixirs to increase eyesight for short durations of time to give Bonnie an exasperated look. "Why are you so determined to not enjoy yourself?"

"Because I shouldn't have to. You forced me on this date, okay? You bribed my friend and took advantage of the fact that you knew I'd help her to turn this to your advantage. I shouldn't have to act like I'm enjoying myself."

"But you could if you just let yourself! You are standing here in the middle of one of the best-kept greenhouses on the east coast with the person that probably has the most knowledge about magic in the _world_, and you're just curling your lip and looking away."

"Because you're a bad person."

"Why?" Kol asked.

She gave him an incredulous look. "You know why."

"Humor me."

"You kill people."

"So have you and your friends. Next."

"Not unnecessarily."

He tried _very _hard not to let his fangs drop (as that would be somewhat counterproductive), instead taking a deep, steadying breath.

"How many vampires do you think it takes to complete a hunter's mark?"

Bonnie frowned. "Why does it matter?"

"Answer the question."

"I don't know. A hundred?"

"Thirty-three," Kol said shortly. "It takes thirty-three vampires to complete the hunter's mark. How many vampires do you think that your little boyfriend killed when he staked me?"

Bonnie seemed to not know what to say for a moment before she pulled herself together. "He's not my boyfriend, and it doesn't matter. They're vampires."

"And would you have let Jeremy stake Caroline? Or your precious _Elena_? They're vampires."

"It's different," Bonnie said firmly. "They're _good _vampires."

"And how do you know that none of the vampires I sired were good vampires, darling?"

"Don't call me that," Bonnie said, squeezing her eyes shut.

Kol huffed. "Let's say that I'm hypothetically a bad person. It's not as though the vampires I sire inherit my personality. I kept close bonds with many of those I sired after we parted ways, and until all of them dropped _dead_, there were quite a few in humanitarian efforts. Perhaps you remember Alexia Branson? Turned 1680 by one of my favorites of my bloodline, Marcus. She made it her life's mission to redeem vampires that had gone ripper, probably saving _thousands _of lives in the process. I heard that your friend Damon killed her. Pity that. Or perhaps you've heard of Mary Porter? My brother turned that one, she was rather batty, but I turned her friend Eleanora, who spent more than half her life in Europe tending to children orphaned by the various plagues and wars. Still think all vampires were evil?"

Bonnie's teeth were gritted together. "They're outliers. Elena and Caroline are good people. The Salvatores aren't."

"Jeremy Gilbert killed _thousands_. Some weren't innocent at all, it's true, and some were downright cruel, but many were good people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them dropped dead the second that stake entered my heart."

"We had to complete the mark," Bonnie said stubbornly.

"Oh, and you couldn't, I don't know, go to a major city and turn a bunch of rapists and murderers and have him stake them all?" Kol said sarcastically. "Was it really necessary to kill me? And in any case, haven't we all agreed that freeing Silas might have been the most idiotic thing your friends have ever done?"

Bonnie shrugged. "And I was right about that, wasn't I?" Kol continued. "I told you all not to do it, but you didn't listen to me, did you?"

Bonnie glared at him. "Just because you sired some good vampires and were right about one thing doesn't make you a good person."

"You're right. It doesn't. I'm not a good person, and I acknowledge that. I kill people if it's necessary. I _revel _in it," he said slowly, moving closer to her, invading her personal space. "I am not my brother, Bonnie. I don't crave redemption, and if I did, I certainly don't need a woman to accomplish it. However, I'm not evil. I don't kill senselessly. I was a warlock once, and I had that connection with nature, with _life_. Nothing is binary in life, Bonnie Bennett. Nothing is truly right or truly wrong. You think I'm evil. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I am evil. But are you so much better than me, darling?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, and before she could say anything, he sped away.

**XXX**

"You're leaving?" Caroline asked, completely confused when she looked up to see Klaus rolling a suitcase and setting it near the front door.

"I have to find the doppelganger, love."

"Can't Katherine help?"

"Katerina narrowed down the branches of her family to a few possibilities, but none of them have a child that age, which means she must have either missed a line or that none of them were close enough to have a higher chance of producing a doppelganger. I have a vial of her blood, which I'm taking to a witch to use to track down the doppelganger's approximate location. Which reminds me, you wouldn't happen to have any pictures of Elena as a child?" he asked hopefully, sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Um...Yeah, actually. We had to have baby pictures for the yearbook. Hold on," Caroline said, leaning to grab her laptop off the coffee table, still thrown by Klaus's abrupt announcement of his departure.

"When will you be back?" she asked, opening the device and snuggling into Klaus's side while he looked over her shoulder.

"Already miss me?" he teased.

She shrugged. "I just got used to having you around again, I guess."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be distracted enough by the play and by living with Katerina and Kol to not think of me too much," he said. "And once I get back I'd like to take you to see a witch friend of mine, just to make sure that there aren't any side effects of your immunity to the werewolf bite."

"Okay, sounds good. Here's a picture. Do you want me to print it?"

"Yes. Thank you, love," he said, pressing a kiss to her temple.

Klaus was strangely sweet with her. She'd never thought of him as being likely to cuddle or display affection casually, but he tended to do it quite a bit in private. She just hummed in acknowledgement and hit the print button before pushing her computer away.

"When does your flight leave?"

"Just a few hours."

Caroline nodded and kissed him softly, and he pulled her to straddle his lap, deepening the kiss, his hands resting on her hips to pull her covered core against his rapidly hardening cock. She felt the heat pooling in her lower belly, making her core clench, and moaned into his mouth as he moved his hand under her skirt to hook his finger around the string of her thong. She rolled her hips against the finger that brushed against her folds and opened her mouth so that he could plunder it with his tongue while pushing his fingers into her tight, wet heat.

Her fingernails clawed at his back, and she tugged his hair as he fingerfucked her. She was short of breath as she pulled away, resting her head in the crook of his neck and moaning his name as she rode his fingers. She was about to pull off her dress when Kol sped through the door, clearly upset, slamming it behind him.

Caroline pushed Klaus away, her face heating as she buried it deeper into his shoulder, but he held her tight to him, simply pulling his fingers out of her and letting them splay across her lower back. "Kol, why are you here?"

"This is my apartment as well, Nik, and apparently we need to talk about boundaries, since the last thing I wanted to come home to after my disastrous date with Bonnie was my brother and roommate fucking on the couch."

"Sorry," Caroline said, knowing Kol would hear her despite the fact that her voice was muffled against Klaus's shirt.

"I'm sure you are, darling," Kol muttered, walking to his room and slamming the door behind him.

Caroline pulled away from Klaus, who gave her a dimpled smile, running a hand through her hair.

"Didn't you hear him coming?" she hissed.

"No. He was running too fast for me to have time. Sorry, sweetheart."

She huffed. "It's okay. I need to call Bonnie to see what happened, and rehearsal starts in an hour or so anyway."

She moved to get off of him, but he held fast, bending to nibble at her ear. "We were in the middle of something."

"I think Kol's had enough ear-scarring for one day," she said before huffing at Kol's mutter of _damn right_ from his room. "And you need to catch your flight."

"Would you like me to call you when I land?"

"Only if you want to."

He nodded and stood up, pulling her into a hug and burying his nose in her hair. "I'll miss you."

"Oh, good lord, just leave, Nik. You're not going off to war," they heard Kol's voice call from the other room."

Klaus rolled his eyes before kissing Caroline on the cheek, plucking Elena's picture off the printer in the corner, and grabbing his suitcase, closing the apartment door after him.

"Kol, if you're ready in ten minutes, I can give you a ride to rehearsal," she said, inwardly hoping that she'd be able to pry out his side of the story before Bonnie undoubtedly gave her an earful later.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Did you like the smut? How are we feeling about Kennett? Are we Team!Bonnie or Team!Kol? How do we think the doppelganger finding will turn out? Are we excited to see rehearsals for the musical?  
Tell me your thoughts! :)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	9. Offers and Counteroffers

**A/N: Thank you so much for your patience with the wait :)  
This chapter is in celebration of Giulia's birthday. #TeamGiulia  
This fic is sort of starting to err on the side of crack, but I hope you guys can bear with me :P Thank you to Sophie, D, and Wifey for betawork.  
Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"All right, everyone. Gather 'round. Welcome to the first rehearsal for_ Little Shop of Horrors. _I hope you realize that if you're taking this class, not only will you have a grade for yourself, but a grade for the rest of the cast members. In this class, if one person fails, everybody fails. I am counting on your ability to peer pressure your castmates to succeed. We only have six weeks before opening night including this week, so everyone's presence at rehearsal is important. This is a very small cast, which means that there is no room for skipping out. If anyone misses class for any reason, you must email me at least twelve hours prior to the rehearsal. If you do not, you will fail for the day. If you get three fail days, you fail the class. If you fail the class, everybody fails the class. Any questions?"

The entire cast was silent, and Caroline decided that if compulsion was ever necessary, it would be to compel to the director to change that rule, because it was _bullshit_.

"All right. Good. We're going to do a cold read-through with no songs, which shouldn't take long since there isn't much talking. After that, we're going to talk about who is coming to which rehearsals. Again, this is a very small cast, and the songs are the heart of the show, and there will be times when you're not needed. I want you all off-book by next week so that we can block the scenes with no music. We'll do a few run-throughs of that, skipping through the songs, and then we'll rehearse music and choreography for three weeks. After that is tech week. Any questions?"

Unsurprisingly, no one asked questions.

"Good. Let's get started."

The next two hours went by quickly, and he let them out early after the cold read through and scheduling, telling them to memorize lines.

"You all take this theatre business rather seriously, don't you?" Kol asked casually as they walked to the car to head back to the apartment.

Caroline felt her eye twitch. "Yes."

"It seems fun, but I don't know why you all seem so concerned with attendan–"

"Kol, theatre is serious fucking business. You will go to all of the rehearsals. You will learn your lines. You will learn your songs. You will try your best, because I swear to god if you ruin this for me I will dagger the fuck out of you, do you understand?"

"You can't dagger me. Using the dagger will kill–"

"I will find a way, and I will do it. Don't push me, Kol."

"Yes, ma'am," he mumbled.

"So, are you going to tell me about your date with Bonnie?"

"She clearly isn't interested."

"Well, to be fair, we knew that."

"She's just very self-righteous. I understand that I'm not a good person, but she isn't willing to see that I happen to have quite a few good qualities."

Caroline sighed. She loved Bonnie, and they'd been best friends for most of their lives, but even she could admit that the other girl was a bit judgy. "Have you tried showing her your good qualities?"

"No, I knew that she hated bad people so I kicked puppies in front of her and stole candy from small children," Kol said sarcastically. "I took her to a flower garden and tried to talk to her about all the ways flowers could be used in magic. I thought it was rather romantic."

"Maybe you should try a date that doesn't focus on how she's a witch. She might think that that's the only reason you like her," Caroline suggested, honking the horn as someone tried to merge into her lane. "Motherfucking shitsucker, _learn to drive_."

"You all right, darling?" Kol asked slowly, looking at her as though he was contemplating planning his escape to safety.

"Yes. I'm fine," Caroline said through gritted teeth, pulling into the garage complex of their apartment.

**XXX**

She'd just gotten back from their fourth rehearsal, and she was ready to just sit on her bed and relax with a new television show. Before she could get settled, Klaus's ringtone echoed through her bedroom, and she put her laptop aside to answer her cell phone. "Hey."

"Hello, love."

"How's the scavenger hunt going?"

"I think we have a lead. One of the families had a daughter, but she got pregnant as a teenager and gave the baby up for adoption. Hopefully we'll find her and then the baby, and hopefully that baby will be the doppelganger."

Caroline hummed to show she'd heard. "When do you think you'll find them?"

"Soon. Only a few weeks."

"Good. I miss you."

It was odd how fast they were moving in their relationship, and she sometimes wondered if it was the bond pushing them together (and then pushed the thought away). It felt natural and comfortable and _right_, and she knew that it wasn't normal to feel so unconcerned with bearing her feelings to him, but she knew that he felt the same with her.

It was equally thrilling as it was terrifying.

"And I, you."

"I got a package today, by the way."

"Oh?" he asked, not even bothering to sound innocent.

"Thanks. It was nice of you to buy me some new bras after you mercilessly ripped my favorite one."

"Of course, love. Do they fit?"

"You're just trying to make me take my clothes off when I'm on the phone with you," she mumbled, not bothering to get up.

"Perhaps," he said, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

She found herself smiling without meaning to. "Well, I did try one on, and it fit, but I'm in my pajamas right now, and therefore in no need of a bra."

"I'm glad."

"That they fit, or the lack of bra?" she teased.

"Both."

His voice had dropped lower in tone, and she could feel the ache starting between her thighs. She couldn't believe that such a cheesy conversation was turning her on so much, and she wondered whether she would ever get tired of him.

"What are you wearing, sweetheart?"

Probably not.

"Just a t-shirt and sleep shorts. You?"

"Still dressed. Just got back to the hotel."

"Wouldn't you be more comfortable with less on?" she asked, trying to keep her voice light and teasing.

"Most likely." She heard the creak of him lying down in bed and couldn't help smiling. "Are you alone right now, sweetheart?"

"Yeah. Kol is out trying to get drunk faster than his body heals him, and Kat is at a night class."

"Good. I want you to undress for me and then lie down on your back."

She felt a shiver run down her spine at the tone of his voice, a sharp stab of arousal hitting her center as she put the phone down to tug off her shirt, throwing it to the side, and slid off her shorts. She got comfortable against the pillows and pulled the phone back to her ear.

"Okay, now what?" she asked, her voice breathy and low.

"I want you to spread your legs for me and let your hands trail down your body."

She moaned as she let her fingers drift across her skin, stroking her stomach and inner thighs, teasing herself.

"Touch yourself, Caroline."

Her breath caught as she ran the tips of her fingers over her clit, her hips jerking up to meet her fingers. She heard the distinctive sound of a zipper and the rustle of clothing, and she let out another breathy sigh, more for Klaus's benefit than hers, smirking when she heard his sharp intake of breath.

"Are you hard for me?"

"Yes."

"Are you touching yourself to the sound of my voice?"

"Yes, sweetheart."

"I'm sure you wish it was my hand wrapped you, don't you? Are you imagining that I'm there with you, Klaus?"

"Yes."

"Tell me what you want me to do for you, Klaus."

"I want you on your knees in front of me with your lips wrapped around my cock."

She let out a small breathy moan, letting her fingers circle her entrance before pushing a finger in, letting her breaths become more ragged. "I want that too. I want you to tangle your fingers in my hair while I take you in my mouth. I want you to watch me suck your cock while I touch myself. I want you to beg me to let you come in my mouth."

"_Fuck, Caroline…"_

"I want you so much, Klaus," she panted out, pushing two fingers into her heat while she rubbed her clit.

"Are you thinking of me when you fingerfuck yourself?"

"Yes."

"Do you wish it was my cock fucking you instead, sweetheart? I'm sure you do. I'm sure you wish that I was buried inside you right now, my cock filling your tight pussy so perfectly, slamming into you until you _scream_."

"Klaus, please..."

She heard him groan as he stroked himself, and couldn't help rolling her hips against her hand as she fucked herself, imagining it was Klaus's hand rubbing her clit, Klaus's fingers hooked inside her…

"I'm so close…"

"Come for me, Caroline," he said, his voice low and husky and dripping with _sex _and _desire _and she couldn't quite think straight as he told her how gorgeous she must look spread out on her bed fucking herself with her fingers, how much he wished he could see her right now, flushed and panting for him.

She moaned as he breathed all sorts of filthy promises of what he would do to her when he finally got back. He told her how much he wanted to bury his face between her thighs and make her come on his tongue, how _perfect_ she would look bent over in submission as he took her from behind, how much he wanted to watch her face while he fucked her, her legs spread in the air for him.

She felt the tightness in her belly snap abruptly, and she moaned out his name as she rode her fingers through her orgasm, collapsing almost bonelessly on her covers. She knew that Klaus still hadn't finished, and let her breaths stay ragged, her voice thick with lust.

"I want to come around your cock next time. I want you to watch me lick my juices off of it, watch me taste myself before you fuck my lips and come in my mouth."

He groaned her name, and she could tell that he came from the change in his breathing pattern. She laid back, feeling rather pleased with herself.

She was getting the hang of this whole dirty talk thing.

**XXX**

"Kol, can you get the door?" Katherine called from her bedroom.

"You heard it first. You do it."

"In the time you said that, you could have gotten the door."

"But I didn't. Get the door yourself."

"Oh my god, just one of you let me in," Bonnie said exasperatedly from the other side.

Kol was up in an instant, though he pasted a blank look in his face when he opened the door. "Bonnie."

"Hey. Um, can I talk to you?"

"Yes," he said, not moving aside to let her in, forcing her to stand in the hallway.

He could tell that she was debating moving him aside with magic, but she seemed to realize that it would be counterproductive to a peaceful conversation. "I'm sorry about the other day," she said stiffly.

"Are you?"

She gritted her teeth. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be, Kol."

An innuendo was on the tip of his tongue, but he managed to restrain himself, instead staying silent.

She sighed. "Look. I thought about it, and you're right. I shouldn't uphold the double standard like that. If I accept that my friends are good vampires, then others must exist as well."

She looked like she was being genuine, and he almost smiled when she continued. "That doesn't change the fact that you're not a good vampire," she said slowly. "You don't want to change, and I can't make you change unless you decide to."

"So, you came all the way here to tell me that you've decided not all vampires are evil, and yet you still manage to call me evil," Kol said dryly.

"You didn't let me finish."

"Oh, please do then, darling. Elaborate on what a terrible person I am."

She huffed. "All I was going to say was that if I'm going to be...involved with you, I'll need to accept you for who you are, not for who I want you to be. So, I want to make a deal."

"Do you know what you're getting into when you make a deal with an Original, darling?"

"It's binding," she said dryly.

"Very," he agreed. "So, what's your proposal?"

"I will give you three dates at venues of your choosing, and I will not make assumptions about your past or personality. I will also try not to judge you."

"I love your use of 'try'."

She shrugged. "I'm only human," she said, and he could almost see a hint of a smile on her face.

"What's in it for you, then?"

She bit her lip, looking a bit nervous. "I want complete honesty. I want to get to know you-the real you. No lies, no omissions."

"And?" he asked.

This deal weighed too heavily in his favor. There must be something else she wanted.

"And whether the dates go well or not, I want you to answer my questions about witchcraft, no matter what they are. I want you to teach me. You said you have the most knowledge of magic in the world. Show me."

"Deal," he said immediately.

**XXX**

"This is the most adorable thing ever," Caroline squealed. "Katherine, you _have _to see this."

"What?" Katherine grumbled from the other side of the room.

"This, look!"

"You're going to have to come over here. I'm not moving."

Caroline huffed and stood up, carefully cradling her laptop, and sat down beside her roommate, turning the screen towards her. "_Look_."

Caroline smirked as she watched a small smile fight its way onto Katherine's face. "See? No one can resist the adorableness of a corgi. Literally no one."

"Have you _met_ your mate?"

Caroline huffed. "Don't. It's weird enough that Kol calls him that when he's not around, I don't need you doing it too. Just call him Klaus."

"Whatever," Katherine said, still not turning away from the screen as her eyes followed the corgi jumping down the stairs over and over.

"I think that this is the universe telling us that we should get a dog."

"Are you nuts?"

Caroline pouted, a bit offended. "No. I want a dog. I've always wanted one. I used to be allergic to them, but vampire powers fixed that."

"Don't you have to, you know, feed them? And play with them? And _walk _them? My Louboutins do not tolerate dirt well."

"We'll take turns!" Caroline said cheerfully.

"Because that worked _so _well with the chore wheel."

Caroline glared at her. "You don't want a dog?"

Katherine pursed her lips. "I like dogs. I just don't want them to chew on my clothes. Or the furniture. Or pee in my room."

"We'll train it."

"You have an answer to everything, don't you?"

"Duh."

Katherine sighed. "Fine. I'm on board as long as _you're _the one to bring it up with Kol. And Klaus."

"Fine. What kind do you want?"

They shared a smile.

**XXX**

"No."

"What do you mean, no?"

"No. Absolutely not. I do not need a…a _mongrel _living in my apartment."

"It's _my _apartment."

"You can't keep pulling the mate card, Caroline. It only works so many times."

Caroline pouted. "I want a dog."

"Sometimes we can't get what we want, darling."

"If Klaus agrees can we get one?"

"No," Kol said, clearly knowing full well that Caroline could get Klaus to agree to pretty much anything.

"Bonnie likes dogs," Caroline sang as a last-ditch effort.

Kol rolled his eyes. "Witches are almost exclusively cat people."

"Not Bonnie."

"It doesn't matter what Bonnie likes or doesn't like. We are not getting a dog."

"There are two things that make hot men infinitely hotter to women of child-bearing age, Kol," Caroline said clinically, trying not to admit to herself that she was basically bribing Kol with sex without actually having the ability to follow through. "Hot men holding babies and hot men holding adorable animals."

"Are you calling me hot?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you've been alive a thousand years and haven't figured it out yet, you're dumber than I thought. I didn't say that it wasn't your only redeeming quality."

"I'm wounded, darling."

"_Anyway,_" she said, interrupting him firmly. "I want a dog. Help a sister out, here?"

"It doesn't go in my room, or sleep in my bed, and I don't have to take care of it," Kol said immediately.

"Done," Caroline said, knowing full well that if the legend that dogs resembled their owners had any truth to it whatsoever, any dog belonging to her and Katherine would do what it damn well wanted, and she had no ability to enforce said condition.

But whatever, he couldn't kill her.

**XXX**

"No, love."

"Klaus…"

"No."

Caroline looked straight into her webcam and pouted. "Please?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want a dog."

"Well, I do. It's not like you'd be living with it."

"For now. Dogs live quite awhile. Chances are, I'll be living with it at some point."

"Very confident, aren't you?"

"You love it."

She snorted, though inwardly admitted that there was something about his confidence that did get to her. She suspected it was that goddamn alpha male mating instinct that she _wasn't even supposed to fucking have_.

"I'll make you a deal."

He perked up immediately. "I'm listening."

"You agree to have a dog in the apartment, and I won't get one without asking."

His lips twitched. "That's not really a deal, love. That's more like an ultimatum."

She shrugged. "Tomato, tomato. So, do we have a deal?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Counteroffer: I agree to allow a dog into the apartment, which is technically mine, that I do technically live in, as long as you take care of it."

"All right," Caroline said agreeably, but before she could speak again, he cut her off.

"And," he continued, "I want you to consider what I talked to you about last week."

She flushed. "The wolf thing?"

He smirked. "Is that what we're calling it now?"

Well, in her personal opinion, 'the wolf thing' was much easier to say than, 'taking me from behind with my face in a pillow before marking my skin with your come the night before the full moon because of some stupid alpha male instinct', and she told him so, making him give her a smug smile.

"Does it not appeal to you?" he asked, his eyes raking over her body predatorily as she moved to lie on her stomach, putting a pillow under her arms to cushion them and resting her head down, trying to get more comfortable.

She tried to look nonchalant, but he grinned as a flush crept up her cheeks.

"I didn't say you had to do it. It's up to you, as it always is. I just want you to think about it."

The truth was, she had been thinking about it. A lot. At night. Not that she'd ever say that to him.

Though from the look on his face, he knew _exactly _where her thoughts were.

"Okay. I'll think about it."

He beamed at her, and she smiled back for a moment before it slid off her face.

"You're not going to do the scary alpha thing to my dog, are you? It needs to feel safe at home."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

**XXX**

"What's his name?"

"_Her _name is Buffy."

Katherine's eye twitched.

"After the vampire slayer?" Kol asked, studying the animal in question, only recently up to date with the contemporary pop culture references to vampires.

"That's what _I_ said, which is why her name is Boudicca."

"After the war heroine?" Kol asked slowly, still staring down at the dog.

The fluffy, rather round corgi looked back, her tongue out and tail wagging.

"Ah, yes. Face of a warrior, that one."

"Well what would _you _name her?"

"Err…I don't know. Biscuit?" he suggested, throwing out the first dog name that came to mind.

"I like mine better," both girls said together before glaring at each other.

They eventually started calling her Bee, since poor little Boudicca-Buffy-Biscuit couldn't figure out which name she was supposed to answer to.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Bee will be featured more heaving in Under My Roof (the drabble companion to this) than this story, but she'll have a cameo every now and then. I hope you liked the phone sex. I don't think I've ever actually _written _phone sex before, so please tell me how it was! Kennett is getting closer to being a thing, so I hope you guys are enjoying that.  
You can catch me on tumblr at thetourguidebarbie for the most up-to-date information on my fics.  
Let me know what you think!  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	10. My Boyfriend, the Serial Killer

**A/N: Thanks for your response to the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one :)  
Thanks to Wifey, D, and Sophie for beta work.**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

Klaus was still gone, though he'd gotten closer to tracking the child that had been adopted by another family, and Caroline was driving Kol to rehearsal. The cast was almost through blocking the show, and they only had two scenes left to go before everyone started on their songs.

It had only been about twenty minutes before they got to the part that Caroline knew would happen sooner or later.

There was a part of her that was dreading it, and another part of her that longed to see Kol's expression. Sure enough, Kol's face pulled into a scowl.

"I beg your pardon?" Kol asked, his eyes flicking to the director.

"I said that you'll kiss her, say the line, and exit stage left," the director repeated.

"I can't kiss Caroline."

"It's _theatre, _Kol," Caroline snapped. "This is what happens in plays. You play a part of someone who isn't you. You aren't kissing me. Orin is kissing Audrey."

"Nik will not see it that way at all."

"Klaus isn't here. And anyway, I have to kiss Steve for like, ten seconds after our duet. With tongue."

"Have you told Steve to ensure his will is finished in time?"

"Not funny, Kol."

"What's going on?" the director interrupted.

"Kol's brother is my...boyfriend–"

Kol snorted at her choice of word, and she shot him a filthy look before turning back to the director.

"And he's kind of…" she trailed off.

"Possessive? Protective? A serial killer?" Kol suggested dryly.

"Not. Funny. Kol."

"Well, as Caroline said, this is theatre, and in theatre, you kiss people that you are not in relationships with in real life when you're both in character. It's perfectly normal."

The professor's tone was dry, and Caroline knew that he was completely unimpressed that he had to explain the concept of 'acting' to someone in a college theatre class, though he shot Caroline a pitying look.

"Nik will kill me."

"I'm sure that Klaus be fine with it," Caroline interrupted firmly.

Kol shot her the most skeptical look she'd ever seen him wear, and her lips twitched. "He listens to me. I can talk him down. You know that."

"Fine, then," Kol said, taking a deep breath as though he were about to go to his last meal before the lethal injection. "Pray for me, Caroline."

She snorted and walked back to take it from her entrance.

When the rehearsal was over, the professor asked her to hang back to help him clean up, and Kol indicated that he'd be right outside.

"I know that it's not any of my business, but if you feel comfortable, would you tell me what you and Kol meant when you were talking earlier? About...Klaus, was it?"

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, a bit guarded.

Was he looking for information about how to kill him? Was he in league with some ridiculous witch cult trying to kill them? Had Klaus not been being ridiculously overprotective when he sent Kol in? Maybe she shouldn't have told him to wait outsi–

"Well, Kol seemed a bit nervous about a situation that you, as an actress, know is quite common. To be fair, you also seemed a bit conflicted."

Caroline frowned, wondering where this was going. "Kol and Klaus don't get along well, and both of them are kind of dramatic. This is definitely the place for Kol," she said, trying to make a joke, but her professor didn't laugh.

"Well, if you ever need to talk, I have office hours. If you don't feel comfortable talking to me, the resource center at Augustine Hall has a few really great people."

_Oh._

"Oh, no, Klaus isn't...I'm fine. And Kol's fine. I mean, thanks for your concern, but–"

"All right, Caroline. Well, the offer's always open."

"Thanks," she said awkwardly, quickly putting the rest of the small props in their boxes and waving goodbye.

"You need to be more careful about what you say in front of other people," Caroline hissed as she led Kol back to the car.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you've been daggered since like, the eighteenth century, but beating your wife isn't something you openly admit to anymore."

"Seventeenth, actually, and I'll try to be more careful. Wouldn't want to have to kill your professor if he started making trouble."

"Oh my god, Kol, you are completely missing the point."

"You're right, I was. _Wife?_"

"They will never find your remains," Caroline mumbled, ignoring Kol's sharp laughter behind her.

**XXX**

"Hello, Bonnie Bennett," Kol said cheerily when Bonnie opened the door to her dorm room.

"Kol. Hi," she said, fighting down a smile at his greeting.

"Ready to go, darling?"

"Yeah," she said, turning and grabbing her purse from her dresser, locking her door behind her, and following him to the front of the building.

It was their third date, and Bonnie had to admit that he had been thoughtful, kind, and not at all murderous. He'd clearly taken advantage of his close proximity to Caroline to badger her with all kinds of questions, because Bonnie wasn't quite sure how he'd have known about her roller blading guilty pleasure, or her love of horror movies.

She'd promised not to judge him as much as possible and to rein in her self-righteousness (and yes, she admitted she was self-righteous, but everyone had their drawbacks, right?), and she thought she was doing pretty well at it. She asked him lots of questions about history and the time periods he had lived in, and he had a way of bringing all of his stories to life that fascinated her.

"What are we doing?" she asked, fastening her seatbelt and settling her purse on her lap.

"You'll see."

She refrained from shooting him a suspicious look, and instead tried to guess as the buildings went by while he drove her downtown.

"A dance studio?" she asked when they pulled up.

"You like to dance, right?" Kol asked, suddenly looking a bit nervous.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've been dancing since I was really little. I loved it."

"Good," Kol said, grinning. "You'll have to help me a bit though."

"You're a thousand years old. Shouldn't you know how to dance?"

"I can waltz and do other traditional stuffy dances, but this will be the first time I do modern ballroom dance."

"Ballroom?" Bonnie asked, suddenly a bit nervous.

"Caroline told me that you could handle anything dance-related, so I tried to pick something that I wouldn't be completely hopeless at. I didn't want to embarrass you. Bekah suggested it. I have no sense of rhythm."

"It wouldn't be embarrassing, Kol," Bonnie said, though she secretly felt warmth build in her at Kol's roundabout thoughtfulness.

He gave her a smirk that told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking, and got out of the car to open the passenger door for her, guiding her into the studio, his hand resting on the small of her back.

She'd thought originally when she heard of vampires that their skin would be cold, icy, and feel like death, but she'd since learned that vampires felt like every other person, besides the slight shock she got when trying to read them.

His hand was warm on her through her blouse, and she pretended not to notice the gentle circling of his thumb against her back.

The next hour was fun, and as Caroline had predicted, Bonnie picked the steps up very quickly and ended up guiding Kol through a lot of it, to her own amusement. There was a lot of laughing involved, and she vaguely realized that she was having fun, and she didn't mind.

The lesson went by very quickly, and he took her out for lunch before driving her back to her dorm.

"So darling, have fun?"

"Yeah," she admitted, not bothering to lie.

He gave her a wicked smirk. "Change your mind about me being an evil prick?"

"No," she said, and his face fell slightly before she added, "But I don't think I mind as much. As long as you, you know, keep up the good behavior."

"I'll do my best, though as I've said, I won't change for you. You can't fix me, Bonnie."

"You wouldn't be you if you did."

They were silent for a moment, and Kol nodded slowly. "So, darling. Dinner this weekend?"

"Sounds good," she said, giving him a wide smile, which he returned before looking vaguely conflicted about something.

She was about to ask what was wrong when he bent down to press a quick and chaste kiss to her lips before flashing off to his car and driving away, while she stood in front of the door, slightly stunned.

**XXX**

"You're home," Caroline said happily when she walked in from practice, bending over to pull her wedges off and drop them in near the door, smirking as Klaus stared very obviously down her dress. He was on the couch, pressed against one of the armrests as Bee took up most of the couch, regarding Klaus with interest, before jumping down and running up to Caroline, who bent to scratch her behind the ears. "Anything new happen?"

He had the silly grin on his face that he seemed to get whenever she said the word 'home', which made her smile back.

He stood up to walk towards her, grabbing her waist and pulling her to him, giving her a drugging kiss. She moaned softly, pressing herself against him and pulling back to press their foreheads together.

"Other than crossing another family off of our list? No. We only have one left to check, and she'll still be a doppelganger tomorrow. I thought I'd stop by for the night to collect."

"Collect? Collect what, exactly?" she asked, grinning.

"Tonight's the moon."

"Hmmm. I said I'd think about it."

"Yes, but when you said that your eyes were dark and you were shifting against the comforter. One would almost have thought you were aroused by the idea."

"Being aroused by the idea doesn't make me want to do it," she said, before taking a sharp breath as images of what Klaus wanted filled her mind.

He was fucking her from behind in front of a mirror, and her eyes were closed as her body shuddered in pleasure. She was leaning down on her elbows, begging him to go faster and harder, and his hands were gripping her hips as he fucked her.

She could feel the arousal pooling in her lower belly from the pictures, fading in and out like a badly lit movie, and she felt her core clench tightly in anticipation when imagination-her came.

"Is that really the face I make when I come?" she asked, wrinkling her nose and ruining the moment.

But she _had _to know, okay?

"Yes, and it's beautiful."

She scoffed, and he grinned unrepentantly, playing with the ends of her hair. "We don't have to, Caroline."

She bit her lip, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "I think I want to. I mean, it won't be rougher than anything we've already done, right?"

"No. Not at all."

She moved to slant her lips against his in answer, and his hands squeezed her waist and moved to cup her ass before his lips descended to her neck and collarbone, licking and nipping at her skin. She moaned loudly as he picked her up, his cock hard against her core, and sped them to the bed, throwing her down and climbing on top of her to plant rough kisses against her skin, ripping her dress and bra off impatiently and throwing them to the side, her thong following a moment later.

She was determined to give as good as she got, and pointedly ripped off his clothes too, making him grin as he ground himself against her inner thigh before kissing his way down her body to her breasts, tugging her nipple between his teeth before flicking it with his tongue while he palmed her other breast.

She moaned, her hips jerking, and he smirked before moving to hover above her and before she'd processed what happened he'd flipped her on her knees, his cock pressing against her folds.

"Do you want this?" he asked, and she could hear the strain in his voice, knew that not slamming into her and claiming her was taking every single ounce of his self-control.

"Yes. Fuck me, Klaus."

He gripped her hips to hold her steady as he slammed into her, both of them groaning as the slap of skin against skin filled the room. She gasped, clenching around him when he tugged her hair before winding it through his fingers and pressing her face down to the mattress.

She arched her back, pressing her hips higher in the air, and he moved his hands back to her ass, squeezing it roughly and moving faster.

"That's right, just like that," he said softly, dangerously, almost growling. "You're so fucking gorgeous like this, Caroline. I love the vision of you, your face buried in the pillows while I claim you from behind. You're so wet for me, Caroline. I love how tight and hot you are around my cock."

Her fingers curled into the comforter beneath them, and she moaned loudly as his cock hit a particularly sensitive spot, making her tense against him, pleasurable tension wound tightly within her.

"Yes, scream for me, love. I want to hear you moan while your face is pressed against the mattress. Do you like how hard I'm fucking you, Caroline?"

She tried to nod as best she could, gasping out a yes as she pressed her hips back against him.

"I love the way you clench around my cock, the way you moan for me while I take you. You're so fucking perfect on your knees for me, Caroline."

She felt her core ache with need and want as he hit her g-spot with every movement, his fingers digging into her hips in a painfully pleasurable way as he moved, and she was almost embarrassed by how needy she must sound begging for him and moaning from his every touch against her burning skin, but she couldn't bring herself to be.

"Scream for me, Caroline. I want the rest of the building to hear how much you want my cock, how much you want me, your mate."

She honestly barely registered his words through the overwhelming pleasure of his cock filling her, his body moving against hers. The tension built within her as she moaned his name, pressing back against him, and she was rapidly approaching the edge.

"The way you look while I claim you is so perfect, my mate. Mine. I'm going to mark you with my come, Caroline, and I want to watch it sink into your skin. I want to paint your arse and thighs with it and coat you with my scent. You belong to me, my mate. Your body is mine to own and to worship. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she panted out, her answer completely muffled against the pillow, though he seemed to have heard her as he sped up his strokes, and she could feel his balls slapping against her skin, his cock slamming into her hard and fast, the feeling of being full and whole overwhelming her as she clenched around him. The tension in her lower belly broke, and she screamed into the pillow as she came.

"Yes, come around my cock, love. Scream for me, for your alpha, your mate. Show me how good I feel inside of you, how much better my cock feels than anyone else you've had."

Her breathing was ragged against the fabric of the pillow, and the pleasure building within her was overwhelming and intense as she approached a second orgasm.

He moved one of his hands around her waist to rub her clit as he moved inside her, and she couldn't stop screaming his name, begging him for his cock, for his fingers on her clit, for _more_, and he seemed happy to oblige, her second orgasm crashing around her before she felt the momentary loss of his cock inside her and the feeling of his come dripping down her ass and the backs of her thighs.

She began to move, but he delivered a harsh slap to her ass, making her moan, an intense stab of arousal hitting her core. "Stay there," he said softly. "I want it to dry on your skin, to see my mark and scent on you.

She moved her face slightly so that she could gasp out an agreement, and he stroked her spine, making her shiver before collapsing next to her, pulling her to rest on him. She felt him stiffen underneath her, and crawled off of him. "What's wrong? Klaus, are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yes. Can you text Kol and Katerina to tell them not to come back tonight?"

"Why?"

"I'm being forced to transform," he gasped out.

"What? Why?"  
"You accepted the bond, love."

"So you have to transform every full moon?"

"Don't know. Most likely not," he said, clearly in a great amount of pain. "Text Kol."

"That's so dangerous, though. You could hurt people," she said, starting to roll of the bed.

"Not if you're here," he said, pulling her to him.

"Klaus my phone is in my purse in the living room."

"Come back," he gasped out, and she heard the telltale sound of his bones cracking.

"Always," she said, pressing a kiss to his lips and trying not to look as she heard him shift.

She texted Kol and Katherine quickly before coming back, cautiously poking her head into her-their-room to see Klaus's body finish transforming, a snarling wolf in place.

She heard a sharp bark behind her and turned to see Bee snarling at Klaus, who looked a bit perplexed. Caroline smiled slightly and climbed on the bed, still a bit nervous, before slowly sinking down onto the comforter.

She smiled when Klaus nosed at her neck, moving to shield her with his body, and she knew that she should feel uncomfortably hot, but it felt perfect.

He didn't even growl when Bee jumped up as well, settling at the end of the mattress.

**XXX**

Caroline was exhausted from the beginning of tech week (otherwise known as 'hell week'), and she rooted through her purse for her phone as she walked down the front steps of the theatre building at Whitmore, half her mind focused on running through her cues and lines from memory, the other half wondering _where the fuck her phone was_. Growing frustrated with her lack of success, she stopped and bent down on the pavement so that she wouldn't have to walk while she was looking, and she heard someone call her name.

Turning she saw Frat Boy With The Tongue running up behind her.

"Hey," she said awkwardly, feeling like she should be embarrassed that she was still unable to remember his name (Klaus's announcement about their link totally overshadowed the rest of the day).

"I never got a text from you. I know you were probably giving me a hint and stuff, and it's cool if you were, but I just wanted to, you know, make sure you didn't want to go out again."

"Sorry, um…" she started, awkwardly pausing at his name and then pressing on. "Sorry. I have-I'm seeing someone."

"Oh, okay. It's cool. Thanks any–"

There was a crack of a neck snapping, and Frat Boy With The Tongue fell to the concrete, and she winced at the next sharp crack of his head splitting open against the ground.

Caroline barely had time to process what had happened before her neck was snapped as well.

The next thing she knew, she was dangling from her vervain-burned wrists in a room with a large, curtained window. She hissed in pain as she shifted, her arms already aching from holding her body weight in addition to the vervain ropes.

"Help!" she screamed, but her nose was quickly filled the pungent scent of burnt sage, meaning that the room was silenced.

"Don't scream. No one can hear you, and it just hurts my ears."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at who she assumed was her kidnapper, wriggling in her ropes, trying to break free, but the witch kept a safe distance before plunging a needle into Caroline's side.

Caroline hissed as flames licked at her veins under her skin, the poison flooding her body. "What did you do to me?" she gasped.

Wasn't she immune to werewolf venom?

"I told you when you came into my shop. I don't help vampires."

Caroline felt her breaths become increasingly more ragged, her vision swimming, and all she could do was shut her eyes as tightly as possible, and let the feeling of terror fill her.

**XXX**

To be honest, Klaus had almost forgotten what nausea felt like. Now that he felt it, though, he remembered the creeping feeling of a weight in the back of his throat, the jerk of his stomach as it tried to expel its contents.

In the span of a second, he felt an onslaught of emotions that most certainly were not his own, and when he closed his eyes to take a deep breath, and all he could see was the wall of a dark room, the painful pull of invisible burning ropes at his wrists…

Rage boiled within him as he realized Caroline had been kidnapped, but the more he let his emotions overwhelm him, the more she slipped away. The only way he'd be able to receive her emotional signals was if he calmed down to let them in.

His breath was shaking as he tried to concentrate, to pick up more details about whoever kidnapped her, to suppress his own anger and center himself to allow Caroline to communicate.

After a good ten seconds of his wavering concentration, he managed to calm his breathing down and focus on Caroline.

His mate.

When he opened his eyes, he knew where she was.

* * *

**A/N: Cliffhanger! Sort of.  
What do you think is going to happen? Anyone have any ideas or predictions? How was the Kennett date? Favorite parts? Any constructive criticism? I'm excited to hear your thoughts!  
Thanks for reading ;)  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	11. The Rescuers

**A/N: Thank you so much for the feedback for the last chapter. This one's a bit heavier, and a lot happens, but I hope you enjoy it.  
Thank you to Sophie and Wifey for beta work.  
Hugs!  
-Angie**

* * *

"Katerina, it's your turn!" Kol called, trying to be heard over the obnoxiously loud hairdryer.

"My turn for what?" Katherine asked, walking out of the bathroom, her hair in curlers. "Kol, I unloaded the dishwasher yesterday, it's totally your turn. Also, I need you to help me with these, because somehow Saint Prissypants didn't manage to inherit my fabulous hair genes."

"Aren't you all supposed to be genetically identical?" Kol asked. "And anyway, I wasn't talking about the dishwasher I was talking about picking up Caroline."

"We _are_ identical. I don't understand how she managed to make our hair texture as limp as her pathetic personality."

"Katerina. It's your turn to pick up Caroline," Kol repeated.

"No, it was your turn. Oh my god, Kol! Did you not pick her up?"

"I thought it was your turn!"

"Well, I thought it was _your _turn," Katherine fired back immediately before taking a deep breath. "Look, it doesn't matter whose turn it is. I can't go out in curlers, so you go pick her up and bring her back and we will never speak of this again, especially to Klaus."

"Right, right," Kol said distractedly, scanning the room for his keys and then flinching as the door burst open, Klaus walking in nearly foaming at the mouth with rage.

"Kol!"

"Nik, you weren't supposed to be back for another two–Why do you look like you're about to murder an entire town slowly and painfully?"

"Where is Caroline?" he asked slowly.

"Rehearsal," Katherine said.

"And yet, you both are here while she's not."

Katherine and Kol exchanged a look, and silently agreed that not answering was the best strategy.

Unfortunately, Klaus did not seem to be on board with said strategy.

"Where. Is. She?"

"Judging by how angry you are, I'm going to assume that you know and this is a test to drive the point home," Kol said slowly.

"Ten points to Slytherin," Katherine muttered dryly.

"Slither-what?"

"Call the Bennett witch!" Klaus snarled, interrupting Kol's question. "And Katerina, if she dies, I will–"

"Kill me, yes I know."

**XXX**

When Caroline came back to consciousness, all she could feel was a blinding pain. She tried to take a deep breath, but failed as the substance she'd been injected with flooded her system. After what felt like forever, she successfully evened her gasps of air and opened her eyes slowly.

The witch was gone, and the curtains were still closed. Her eyes watered as she tried to ignore the bone-melting burning fire that ran through her so that she could concentrate. She wasn't sure whether it was Klaus's terror or her own flooding her body, but she tried to push it down and focus on sending him anything helpful. It helped to tell herself to concentrate on certain things.

The fact that her daylight ring was gone was the first thing she noticed, but she tried to push it aside.

Sage overwhelmed her sense of smell, but if she worked hard, she could hear the faint sound of traffic outside, a lot of it judging by the constant motion of tires against pavement.

There was someone moving in the next room, and there was a tiny sliver of light moving through the curtains. Caroline hesitantly tried to swing towards it, and her leg didn't burn. Artificial light, then, she noted. So definitely a city or somewhere with streetlamps, and it was probably night time.

She tried to project the information to Klaus, focusing intensely on what she could see and feel, and she was rewarded by a gentle feeling of reassurance and love, which warmed her up from the inside.

However, she had a feeling that no matter how fast Klaus arrived, it would be better if she saved herself. She wriggled her wrists again, wincing at the pain, before gritting her teeth and pulling. There was some slack, but not much.

_Dear spy movies, please don't let my life be a lie…_

Two cracks echoed in the air, and Caroline hissed in pain as she pulled her hands through the loose knots of the ropes, nursing her broken thumbs and rolling her shoulders as the bones knitted together and the skin of her wrists that had been burned by the vervain regrew.

She was exhausted and achy and thirsty. She could feel her skin drying out as she moved, and she knew it wouldn't be long before it would be difficult to move. Desiccation had always seemed like the worst fate imaginable, but she'd never really been faced with it head on, and it terrified her.

She felt horror well up in her stomach as she pictured being locked in her own body unable to move, waiting for someone to save her, completely _alone_.

She felt warmth spread through her again, and she smiled, because she wasn't alone.

She never would be again.

**XXX**

"Invading my personal space won't make the location spell go any faster," Bonnie snapped, and Kol could tell that she was resisting what must have been the fifth urge in as many minutes to throw Klaus against the wall with magic.

Kol knew that it was hard enough to perform the spell in a moving truck hurtling down the highway at eighty miles an hour, but doing it with the Original hybrid breathing down your neck was even worse.

"Nik, back up a bit, will you?"

"You let her get taken, you don't get a vote," Klaus growled, and Kol rolled his eyes.

Bonnie stopped chanting for a moment to shoot Klaus a glare before resuming, the truck's engine stuttering slightly, and Bonnie huffed in frustration, her eyes filling with tears. "I can't do it. Are you sure that Klaus's blood will work?"

"It should," Kol said diplomatically.

"Well it's not working."

"Why not?" Klaus asked rudely, and Kol sighed in exasperation.

"I don't know," Bonnie said, and Kol could tell that Bonnie was near one of her rare breaking points. It took a lot to upset her, but she'd gone through a lot of change in a very short amount of time, and now the only person who had experienced that change with her was clearly in some very deep trouble.

"Well, figure it out."

His brother was absolutely _awful _at people. Awful. The worst.

"Bonnie, hey, look at me. It's going to be fine, all right, darling?" Kol said, cupping her face and wiping away her tears with his thumb. "It's going to be fine. Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Close your eyes," he repeated, turning her gently to face the map again and resting his hands on her shoulders. "Take a deep breath. Good, now let it out. Keep doing that, and try to find your power. Let it fill you."

Bonnie took in a shuddering breath, and he could feel the power crackling hot under her skin. He pulled his hands away slowly as a created wind picked up, making Bonnie's hair float slightly in the air. She began to chant, and Kol grinned as the bead of blood on the map crept north, which was thankfully the direction that they were headed, stopping in New York City.

"Well, that's excellent. A city with a population of over eight million people. It'll be so easy to find her," Kol grumbled.

Klaus was grinning though, and Kol raised an eyebrow at his brother. "I know exactly where she is."

"Where?"

"Well, I don't know yet, but I know I'll find her once we get close enough. The link should be able to sense it," he said before clicking the intercom button to talk to Katherine, who was driving. "Pull over."

Katherine obligingly pulled over, and Kol resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Klaus sped off.

"What the–"

"Vampire powers build cumulatively, and we're the oldest," Kol said quietly, answering Bonnie's half-asked question. "Nik is not only an Original vampire, but also a hybrid. I wouldn't be surprised if he could run at least 250 kilometers per hour."

"How many kilometers are in a mile?"

Kol sat down, his legs dangling over the edge of the open truck compartment, and Bonnie sunk down next to him. "A little over one and a half. He should be there within two hours, though I don't doubt he'll have to drain one or two people to make up the thirst from it."

"But that's awful."

"That's two random people in exchange for your best friend, darling."

"They're still people," Bonnie said weakly.

"Looks like you're in a bit of a moral quandary again, Bonnie Bennett," he said, trying not to sound too amused with her inner confliction.

Bonnie ran one hand through her hair, biting her lip. "No, I don't think so."

He wasn't quite sure what to make of that.

"You're not?"

"Well, I am, but not as much as I would have been a month ago. You were right about the world not being as simple as it seemed."

"I know," he said, giving her a small smirk, and she just rolled her eyes. "Decided that not all vampires are the same, then?"

She snorted. "Definitely not."

"And there is such a thing as a good vampire?" he prodded.

"Stop fishing for compliments, Kol."

"I wasn't, darling. I was just asking."

She was silent for almost a full minute before speaking again. "I think it's a lot more complicated than I thought initially, and...and I think that I don't know. I don't even know if there's such a thing as a good _person_."

"Fair enough."

He pretended that the brush of their hands before he took hers was accidental, but saw her exasperated smile out of the corner of his eye. He looked at her and was about to talk when Katherine interrupted.

"So, are we going to head to New York, or just wait for Klaus to come back with Caroline thrown over his shoulder like a crazy caveman?"

**XXX**

Klaus dropped the body of the woman to the ground, not bothering to mourn her, and wiping the blood from his lips with his hand before speeding off towards the building Caroline was being held in.

He wasn't sure how he knew, but he felt like he was being pulled there.

The door slammed open and he stepped through with no trouble before being brought to his knees by an aneurysm. He gritted his teeth, trying to gather his strength to push through the onslaught of pain, and he could feel Caroline's presence so close. His vision was blurry, and he was just about to push forward when the aneurysm abruptly stopped. He looked up to see the witch on the ground with a broken neck, and Caroline swaying as she walked.

"Caroline."

She was in his arms before he registered that he'd moved, and he could feel her weight leaning against him, her body weak with thirst. "Caroline, love, look at me."

She shook her head, her breathing shaky and ragged, and he quickly bit into his wrist and pushed it against her mouth, feeling the press of her lips against his skin, the piercing of her fangs as she sucked from the wound, the color flooding back to her cheeks.

When she pulled away, _he_ was feeling a bit light-headed, but that was easily fixable from a person on the street.

"What happened?" he asked, grabbing her hand and dropping it at her cry of pain, settling his palms on her waist instead.

Her hands were mangled, but seemed to be slowly healing themselves, and they both winced as a particularly painful sounding crack of bones shifting reverberated through the air. He squeezed her waist lightly and pulled her to him, his hands moving to rest on her back as he just _held _her.

"The witch injected me with something," she said quietly, her words slightly slurred.

"What do you mean she injected you?"

"I mean she shoved a needle into me and everything hurts and I don't know what it was."

"It still hurts?" he asked, feeling his insides turn to ice.

His blood was a potent cure, and as far as he knew, she was immune to werewolf venom. It just made no sense. "Vervain?" he asked.

"Maybe. I don't know. It hurts," she said, a bit breathless, and he could see the flush that had returned to her face after he'd healed her gradually fading, leaving her skin tinged with grey.

He picked her up easily, cradling her to his chest, and he ran, weaving through the busy streets of Manhattan, unsure of where he was going, but knowing it had to be somewhere. He saw a hotel and ignored the people giving him suspicious looks as he walked straight to the front desk and compelled himself a room, slapping down a credit card without looking at which one it was, if only to avoid any potential bureaucratic issues while he was trying to save her.

He held her to him while they rode the elevator to the first floor (it would be quicker to come and go that way), stroking her hair as she slowly went limp in his arms, her eyes closing.

"Caroline, stay with me, love."  
"I'm so tired."

He could feel the panic welling up in him, and she shifted uncomfortably. He tried to calm himself down, knowing that she would feel his unstable emotions, which would just exacerbate the problem.

He set her down on the bed and pulled out his phone, cradling it to his shoulder as he climbed in bed behind Caroline, pulling her to sit against his chest and biting his own wrist to press his blood to her lips while the phone rang.

"Brother?"

"Where are you, Kol?"

He faintly heard Kol ask Katherine where they were before he came back on the line. "About an hour away from the city."

Klaus explained the situation as best he could and started to give him directions to the hotel when his brother interrupted. "Let me give you to Bonnie. I have no idea what a rock-feller is."

Klaus couldn't restrain an exasperated huff as he heard the faint rush of noise indicating that the phone was being handed to Bonnie.

"Which hotel are you at? I'll map it on my phone."

About an hour later, there was a knock on the hotel door, and Klaus opened it to see Bonnie and Kol on the other side. Bonnie ran to Caroline's side, and Kol turned to Klaus. "Katerina went to get blood bags."

"Good," he said, walking back to the bed and sitting down, trying not to reveal how light-headed he was from constantly feeding Caroline his blood, though Kol gave him a knowing look.

Caroline was beginning to look sickly again, and Klaus bit into his wrist again. Before he could press it to Caroline's mouth, Kol had bitten into his own and pressed it to her lips.

"Kol!" Klaus growled, but Kol's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"You're losing strength fast, Nik. You need time to recover. I can help."

"But–"

"God, Nik...Why do you always have to do everything yourself? Are you really going to stop me from helping her? Helping you?" Kol asked angrily, pulling his wrist away from Caroline's mouth when her skin had returned to a healthier color.

"I just don't understand why. This isn't like you–"

"How would you know? How would you know what's 'like me'? I spent half of the last thousand years running from you and a quarter of it daggered in a box. If anything has been made abundantly clear in the last two years it's that you don't know me at all, and that you're not interested in changing that."

Klaus felt his insides clench, his walls going up, the temptation to lash out growing with every second, but all he could think about were Caroline's words the night she'd accepted the bond that he should _try_.

He and Kol were far more alike than they were different, and that caused them to clash a great deal. Yes, he cared greatly for his little brother, and Klaus had thought Kol knew, but perhaps he hadn't.

His death had hit them all hard. It was unexpected and devastating, and the way that Klaus dealt with grief was to lock it away and distract himself with something else, and that something else became making a more concentrated effort to claim Caroline.

But perhaps he'd gone about it the wrong way.

Kol had looked down on them from the other side and saw the show they put on in public of not caring, and perhaps they'd been good enough at convincing the people of Mystic Falls that they'd convinced Kol as well.

The thought caused a wave of what was becoming a more familiar feeling lately. Overwhelming guilt.

"That's not true, Kol."

"Isn't it, Nik? Why can't you stop treating me like a constant fuck-up and assuming everything is motivated by my own self-interest? Trust me, Nik. Trust me like I trusted you when you pulled the dagger out of my chest. Give me the second chance the way I gave you your eighth."

"Kol, I–"

"You used to be my favorite brother, Nik," Kol said, venom in his voice.

"I grieved for you," Klaus said, his voice equally tinged with fury. "I nearly killed the doppelganger for it."

"The keyword there Nik is 'nearly'. You were more concerned with your new hybrid family than you were with getting your brother back."

"She was Caroline's friend," Klaus said, a bit weakly.

Kol gave a harsh laugh. "She would have forgiven you eventually and you know it. You had eternity to convince her, and the girl was a pretentious bore."

"Don't talk about Elena like that," Bonnie cut in.

"I will talk about the girl who murdered me any way that I wish to, Bon-bon," Kol said, and Klaus had never heard him speak so harshly to Bonnie.

"Leave us," Klaus ordered Bonnie, who raised her eyebrows.

"Excuse me?"

"This is a discussion for family only," Klaus said.

Bonnie shot him a glare and walked to the door, muttering that she'd be right outside.

"Kol," Klaus began uncomfortably. "I understand that it might appear that I only care about you when it's convenient, but I assure you that's not the case."

"Say it all you want Nik, but I want proof."

Klaus flinched, understanding his brother's need for reassurance, but not liking it one bit. "The daggers are in my studio in New Orleans in the cabinet behind the spare canvases. You may do with them what you wish."

Kol froze, his eyes narrowed, before an almost cruel laugh escaped him. "That's your offer of compassion for your brother, Nik? That you'll give up your weapons you used against us?"

"What do you want from me?" Klaus asked frustratedly, not understanding what he was supposed to do.

"I want the three hundred years of my life back."

"I can't give that to you," Klaus said. "That's impossible."

"I know."

He heard Caroline take a shaky breath behind them, and Kol immediately had his bloodied wrist pressed against her mouth, and when the color rose back to her cheeks, he pulled away and glared at Klaus. "I'm going to take Bonnie out to try to distract her from this, not that you care," Kol said quietly, walking away without another word.

Klaus stared dumbly at the closed door for a few moments before sinking down next to Caroline, taking her hand. "What are we going to do, love?" he mumbled, more to himself than to her.

"Make an effort not to be a gigantic douchebag. I hate to say I told you so, but…" Caroline croaked through her dry throat, trailing off.

"But you told me so," Klaus said, helpless to the affection creeping into his voice.

She began to turn towards him, and Klaus helped her, determined not to let her waste energy, making her huff before she spoke again. "Telling him where the daggers are is a good start," she said, clearly trying to encourage him.

"What else am I supposed to do, exactly?"

"Well, you can start by not murdering him for the kiss that's going to happen in the play."

"Beg pardon, love?" he asked, stiffening.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said grumpily. "It's acting."

"Right," Klaus said, gritting his teeth and trying to talk himself out of his admittedly irrational jealousy.

Caroline's eyes fluttered closed, and Klaus bit himself again and brought his wrist to her face. Her eyes fluttered shut as she drank from him before settling herself against the pillows. "You could also just make an effort in general. You know, be extra nice. Buy his favorite foods or whatever."

He didn't answer, shifting uncomfortably, and she cracked an eye open, giving him a dirty look. "Seriously? Do you really not know his favorite foods?"

"To be fair, food today is very different than it was three hundred years ago, love."

She hummed, snuggling closer to him, and he was unable to resist lying down to pull her to his chest, burying his nose in her hair.

"I love you, but you can be such an idiot sometimes," Caroline mumbled, and he barely registered that she'd drifted off a few seconds later, instead focusing on what she'd just said.

They were mated, and she'd accepted the bond, but it was the first time she'd ever spoken those three words to him.

_Why did the milestones of their relationship always have to be the silver lining of the clouds that were his fights with Kol? _he thought a bit miserably.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Any thoughts on what might have been the substance Caroline was injected with? Bonnie and Kol's growing trust? The Klaus and Kol fight at the end? Predictions? Favorite parts? Things you didn't like so much?  
Let me know! :)  
As always, you can catch me on thetourguidebarbie on tumblr.  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	12. The Beginning of Forever

**A/N: There were some people who guessed right on substance, so good for you (and thank you to Wifey for helping me brainstorm it in the first place). I posted the song Kol sings from Little Shop on my tumblr (which is called "Dentist"), but listening to it is not necessary to enjoy this fic (still hilarious, though). My url is "thetourguidebarbie"  
****I really hope you like this chapter :)  
Thank you to Sophie, D, and Wifey for beta things.  
-Angie**

* * *

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing has changed in the last two minutes. I told you that I would inform you if anything did. The more you bother me, the less energy I have to investigate," Priscilla said patiently.

"Fine," he said, sinking down on the armchair next to the bed.

"Klaus, just breathe. It'll be okay," Caroline said quietly, hissing in pain as she moved.

"Well, whatever it was wasn't a spell."

"Of course it wasn't, it was injected," Klaus snapped.

"By a witch. It could have been a spell. Why did this happen, anyway?"

"I visited her shop to research the link," Caroline said slowly, her voice raspy and pained. "She said she doesn't help vampires."

"Oh, she's one of those self-righteous cows," Priscilla muttered scornfully. "Well, I have a theory. Have you tasted Caroline's blood?"

"No. Why?"

"Caroline, I'm going to need some blood from you."

"No," Klaus said immediately. "She's too weak."

"Feed her first then. It'll only be a little."

Klaus scowled but pulled Caroline to him, obligingly letting her sink her fangs into his wrist until she looked slightly normal, and then Caroline held out her hand. Priscilla sliced it and collected some blood in a cup, handing it to Klaus. "Don't drink it. Just touch it."

He raised an eyebrow but pushed his finger in before feeling a stab of pain in his finger. He withdrew it quickly, sending Priscilla a filthy look.

Kol entered the hotel room, Bonnie and Katherine on his heels, and seemed to recognize Priscilla as a witch. "What's going on?"

"I think she was injected with some sort of long-acting vervain."

"No. Vervain would have made her weak, but our blood would have helped heal her. It's potent," Kol said distractedly, his eyes fixed on Caroline, whose eyes were becoming glassy again. "She's probably had a body's worth of Original blood between Nik and me."

"We brought more blood bags, by the way," Bonnie said, dropping the cooler next to the bed.

"Come here, sweetheart. Drink."

Caroline nodded sluggishly and attached her lips back to Klaus's wrist. They'd tried blood bags, but she hadn't been able to keep it down, so Klaus chugged two as soon as Caroline let go so that he could heal.

"My guess is that it had white oak ash in it," Priscilla said.

"That would make sense," Kol said.

Klaus froze before crumpling the blood bag and throwing it across the room with enough force to crack the wall slightly. "Fix it," he ordered.

"I'm not sure what we can do besides bleeding her out completely and then letting her drink."

"Bleeding her out completely is not an option."

"Do it," Caroline interrupted, her voice slightly cracked.

"What?"

"Do it," she repeated. "I need to get better. I have the last tech rehearsal in three hours."

"You're joking, right?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he could feel her anger thrum through his body. "No. I'm not joking. I have spent two months perfecting this Brooklyn accent and if I spent that time doing it for nothing I am going to be very, _very _angry."

"All right, sweetheart," he mumbled, trying to ignore Priscilla's obvious amusement, and Kol's sarcastic mutter of 'Yes, dear'.

Klaus fidgeted for the next ten minutes as Caroline's skin grew gradually more grey, and the closer she got to desiccating the more he could feel the fear building within him. She stopped blinking at all after eleven minutes and twenty-three seconds, and he could hear her already slow heartbeat stop completely after thirteen minutes and two seconds.

Priscilla had backed up, knowing that Caroline would try to attack her if she could smell her, and told Klaus to check for a pulse.

He felt ice grip his heart when he couldn't find one.

"You can feed her now," Priscilla said.

Klaus already had his wrist to his mate's mouth before the witch had finished talking.

Slowly Caroline returned to consciousness, and when she opened her eyes, there was a collective sigh of relief that echoed around the room.

Priscilla bid them goodbye, muttering to herself about how they could have figured it out on their own, and had it _really _been necessary to fly her out at two in the morning for only seven hours, and Klaus ordered Katherine to drive the witch to the airport.

"I'm not one of your hybrids," she spat, her nose wrinkled.

"If you were, you'd be a lot more pleasant."

"Whatever."

"We're just going to stay for a few minutes to make sure you're safe, sweetheart," Klaus said as the door slammed behind Katherine, trying to not make it sound like a demand.

"I'm always safe with you," she said, slurring her words slightly, making Klaus smile softly.

"She'll need some sleep, I think," Kol said as Caroline's eyes shut.

Caroline had already drifted off, and Klaus moved to pick her up.

"Is it safe for her to fly?" Bonnie asked.

"Should be," Kol said. "Let's get her to the airport. Rehearsal starts in two hours and forty-five minutes, and she'll make us all wish we'd been staked if she misses even a moment."

"I don't understand why; she's practically memorized the entire production, even the parts she's not in."

"You're the one that mated yourself to her. And made me join the theatre department," Kol reminded him, a bit more anger in his voice than was usual for him.

He'd ask Caroline for advice for repairing his rift with Kol later. After she was healthy.

He brushed a finger across her cheek, and expected to hear a snigger from his brother, but when he looked up he saw Kol with Bonnie in his arms. "It's all right, darling. She's going to be fine."

"I know," Bonnie whispered. "Thank you for helping her."

"She's my friend too," Kol reminded her gently.

"I know. But still, she's all I have left."

"You have me."

**XXX**

"So, we figured out how to body jump you," Caroline said quietly, sinking down on the couch next to Katherine, still tired, especially after rehearsal that day. "Well, Bonnie did. We're thinking we'll do it right after finals."

Caroline and Katherine had grown incredibly close in the last three months, probably having more to do with the shared agony of living with Kol than anything else, and Caroline had spent quite a lot of it trying to figure out why she didn't feel even one bit guilty.

She'd like to say that it was because she always knew that they'd get Elena back, but she wasn't quite sure she could make herself believe it.

Katherine looked ready to bolt any second, and Caroline, quite honestly, didn't blame her. Bee, apparently completely oblivious to the tension in the room, wriggled in between the girls, and Caroline scratched her affectionately behind the ears.

"Whose body are you putting me in?" Katherine asked, her voice smooth and unwavering.

"We're not body jumping _you_," Caroline said, and Katherine turned and stared Caroline down.

"What do you mean?"

"Elena never wanted to be a vampire," Caroline said quietly.

"Oh, I see how it is," Katherine said, smirking, all of a sudden looking much more comfortable. "Well, aren't you and Bon-bon quite the planners? So, tell me Caroline, what poor human soul are you expelling from their body to give Elena Gilbert a second chance at a perfect human life?"

**XXX**

"So, remember; no death."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Yes, love, I heard you the first ten times."

"No killing Steve, no killing Kol, no killing. None."

"That makes eleven."

"Klaus!"

"I promise I won't kill your fellow actors, all right?"

"Or the director."

"Or the director," he agreed, turning into a parking spot.

"Speaking of, said director is convinced that you're not...very nice, so please don't be a dick to small children or trip little old ladies or anything."

He raised an eyebrow, his lips twitching. "Beg pardon?"

"Just don't give people, you know, the serial killer look."

"The what, sweetheart?"

"The look you do when you're super angry where your eyes flash and you bare your teeth like a crazy person?"

"I will attempt to restrain myself from scaring the general populace."

"Great!" Caroline said cheerfully, getting out of the car and kissing him on the cheek. "So, reminder, my mom's here, and I need you to behave."

She nearly laughed at the look on Klaus's face. She never would have described him as awkward, and he usually had a way of looking comfortable almost everywhere he went, no matter what the situation, but he was certainly awkward and uncomfortable right now.

"That's not a reminder. I don't recall you telling me."

"I'm sorry, Klaus, I thought you knew. 'Cause, you know, I'm in a musical, and my mom only lives forty-five minutes away. Of course she's coming."

"Does she know?" he asked slowly.

"That I'm in a musical? Yes," she said teasingly.

He gave her an exasperated look. "No, about you being my mate."

It was Caroline's turn to be awkward, and she crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "She knows that we're seeing each other, but nothing else. Baby steps, Klaus."

He didn't appear to agree with her from the way his lip curled, but he nodded.

"It starts in two hours, so you can hang out in the lobby or go get coffee or whatever," she said, ignoring the way his face twisted into a scowl at the mention of coffee.

"All right then, love. Break a leg."

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek again. "Thanks. See you soon."

**XXX**

He was sitting at the end of the row, the Bennett witch and Caroline's mother in the seats next to him, talking about the Mystic Falls gossip that Bonnie had missed. Liz had given him a cool look when she'd seen him, simply nodding and walking past him to sit, and he hadn't pressed for an interaction, knowing that Caroline would most likely orchestrate some sort of mandatory social activity afterwards.

He idly flipped through the program, tracing Caroline's name where it was listed next to her part. He saw the other two guests that had been invited edge in right before the lights dimmed, the whispers overtaking the theatre going quiet, and he was soon focused on the play. Musical. Whatever.

Caroline was as perfect as he'd expected, but what really surprised him was Kol.

Admittedly Kol's part, a sadistic dentist who beats his girlfriend, could more or less be considered typecasting, but his brother was..._good_.

He'd always known that Kol could sing, and his brother, like him, had always had a penchant for dramatics and putting on a show wherever he went. However, Kol seemed to genuinely be having fun and seemed committed to the part.

He couldn't take his eyes off his brother whenever he was on-stage, and Caroline for the rest of it, finding himself bored whenever one of them wasn't on stage (though he did appreciate the irony of the blood-drinking talking plant). When the show was over, he clapped and stood up with everyone else as the cast took their bows.

Kol gave the audience one of his trademark smirks and a wink as he bowed before Caroline came on. She was beaming, a radiant smile stretched across her face as she bowed with the boy who played her love interest that he wasn't allowed to kill (Steve?). There were some shouts as the cast bowed together before there was a general exodus to the lobby of the theatre.

A few minutes later, the cast came out, still in costume, and Klaus immediately walked to Caroline, giving her a quick kiss and complimenting her before turning to Kol as Caroline left to greet her mother.

"You were good."

"Thank you, Nik," Kol said stiffly.

"I'm serious," Klaus said.

"Is this your version of trying, Nik? Complimenting me on my performance in a silly play that you made me perform in?"

"No, it's not," Klaus said coldly. "I'm telling you that you were good because you _were_, Kol, not out of some misplaced assumption that you'll forgive me because of it."

"Bullshit," Kol muttered, turning away slightly and nodding to a girl who wished him a good job as she passed.

Klaus struggled to keep his temper, and he knew that Caroline must have felt it because she looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. "Kol, you don't have to believe me, but as I said, I think you did quite well."

"He really did," Rebekah said from behind him, pushing past and pulling Kol into a hug.

Kol looked slightly taken aback (they weren't really a hugging sort-of family), but hesitantly patted her twice on the back before pushing her away. "Thanks Bekah."

"Though I could have done without the gyration of your hips during the song. Was that necessary?"

"Director said to, so yes," Kol said, giving Rebekah a cheeky grin.

"You were amusing," Elijah said stiffly, nodding to Kol.

"'Course I was, 'Lijah. I'm the fun brother."

Klaus tuned out the rest of his siblings' conversation as he felt Caroline's tug of annoyance, and he turned to see her frowning as Liz spoke.

He closed his eyes to tune into the conversation.

"Why can't you be happy for me?" Caroline asked exasperatedly.

"Klaus isn't a good person."

"Seriously, Mom? No one in Mystic Falls is a good person. _I'm_ not a good person."

"He tried to kill you."

"Damon tried to kill me and you like him. _Bonnie _tried to kill me."

Liz fell silent and pressed her lips together before speaking again. "Klaus has killed lots of people."

"Again, have you _met _Damon?"

"We're not talking about Damon, we're talking about Klaus."

He was about to intervene, but when he saw the set of Caroline's jaw, he realized that it might be better to let her handle it. He doubted anything he said would be very helpful.

Instead, he turned back to his siblings, registering that Rebekah was speaking enthusiastically to Elijah about some architectural aspects of the old theatre, and he was nodding politely, a small, indulgent smile on his face at Rebekah's excitement, and Kol was talking to a girl.

"You were really good," she was saying. "I really liked your song, especially."

"Thank you," Kol said, grinning at her.

Klaus rolled his eyes. His brother had always been an insatiable flirt, and everyone (including Kol) had unanimously agreed that it would get him into trouble at some point, which admittedly it had a few times.

"My name is Anne," the girl said, still with the same sweet smile.

"Kol."

"That's an interesting name."

"Thank you. It's from Old Norse, actually. Family tradition."

"That's so cool," she said, leaning towards him slightly.

Klaus rolled his eyes, and then suppressed a smile as the Bennett witch strode past him towards Kol. "Hey," she said affectionately, standing on her toes to press a soft kiss against Kol's lips. "You were great."

Anne gave Kol an irritated look and excused herself, rolling her eyes as she walked away.

"Thank you, darling," Kol said, giving her a smug smile. "Is that what I have to do to make you acknowledge me in public? Have a pretty girl say nice things?"

"I was going to already," Bonnie said easily, shrugging. "Just had to point Katherine in Elijah's direction. She didn't know he was coming."

"Neither did I, to be honest."

"I know. Klaus invited them. He thought you'd want them here."

Klaus looked away, pretending not to notice Kol's incredulous look in his direction. "So, you mean that Caroline reminded him?"

"No. Are you kidding me? I think Caroline would rather down a shot of vervain water than voluntarily invite Rebekah anywhere near her for fun."

Kol snorted. "Our sister tends to have that effect on people, I suppose."

Klaus couldn't help but agree.

He kept an eye on Caroline as she talked to her mother, and went over when it seemed the conversation was slowing down, and Caroline's hand naturally gravitated towards his, linking their fingers together. Liz nodded stiffly to him and left before he or Caroline could speak.

"Sorry. She'll get used to it," Caroline mumbled long-sufferingly, squeezing his hand.

"I know. It's fine, love. Don't apologize. I haven't exactly done much to endear myself to her."

"Not really, no," Caroline admitted, before sighing. "We should head home. I told Kol to keep out for the night, and from the way Katherine looked at Elijah, I'm pretty sure that they'll be out, but I don't want to know what they'll be doing. And Rebekah–"

"Will stay as far away as possible for fear of ruining my virgin ears."

"That is the biggest lie I've ever heard, Bekah," Kol said, coming up behind her.

"Rude."

"It's nice to see you, Rebekah," Caroline said, and Rebekah returned her saccharine smile with one of her own.

"Thank you, Caroline. You as well. Your production was quite good considering the inexperienced cast, and I love the theatre. Very quaint."

"Good to see you didn't forget your bitch pill this morning."

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Rebekah asked, pursing her lips.

Klaus restrained a sigh, wondering what on earth he'd done to deserve this fate for eternity. Caroline seemed to sense his train of thought, because she moved just slightly closer to him, letting him drape an arm around her waist. He subtly inhaled her scent and felt the warmth and light radiating from her, and it reminded him why this fate for eternity was really quite a lovely thing.

**XXX**

"Klaus?"

Caroline stuck her head into their bedroom from the bathroom, her hair half-curled. They'd received the last of the ritual materials the week before, which had been safely stored in their closet. It was the night of the ritual, and Caroline was getting cold feet.

"Yes, love?"

"Are you sure that this'll work?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

"But what if it doesn't? What if I die?"

"You won't."

"But what if I _do_?"

"Caroline, love, stop working yourself up. It will be fine, I promise."

"How do you know? Have you done it before?" she asked, her tone pointed and a bit sarcastic.

"No," he said slowly, his voice reassuring. "But the magic seems theoretically sound, and I have a back-up plan."

"Of course you do," Caroline muttered, winding another lock of hair around the barrel of the curler.

Klaus sighed and walked to her, gently prying the curler out of her hand and turning it off, setting it on the counter.

"Hey, I was using that."

"I know, love. However, you'll be lying on a forest floor in about an hour, and you'll most likely want to shower afterwards anyway."

"I know," she said, letting him pull her to him, stroking her hair. "It just...I don't know. I always feel more confident and in control if do my hair and make-up. Girl thing, I guess."

"Perhaps," he said, letting go of her and leaning against the doorway. "By all means, do what makes you feel comfortable, sweetheart. I'll have Priscilla double-check the ritual site. Will fifteen minutes be enough time?"

Caroline bit her lip and nodded.

He kissed her on the forehead, and she was struck by how domestic the action was, how intimate, and she moved to press her lips against his when he pulled away. "I trust you," she said, turning back to pick up her curler again, and she felt her chest warm with affection as she caught his brilliant smile in the mirror.

When they left exactly fifteen minutes later to drive to the ritual site, Klaus had started to get nervous as well. Caroline could feel his anxiety building on hers, and she tried to calm her breathing. "Klaus, you're making me nervous."

"Sorry, love," he said, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel.

"Klaus, stop."

His fingers froze. "Sorry."

They arrived about fifteen minutes before the eclipse was supposed to happen, and Priscilla guided Caroline to the center of the pentagram, giving her what she assumed was the blood elixir, cautioning her not to drink it yet.

Bonnie stood off to the side, looking on interestedly, as Kol narrated what was going on. Caroline smiled when she noticed their hands were interlocked, and Bonnie noticed her smirk and gave her an exasperated look. Kol just winked.

Klaus hovered by Priscilla, watching everything with hawk-like eyes and double checking everything Priscilla did, to her clear annoyance. Caroline was about to tell him to pull back and let the poor woman do her job when all the torches came to life around her, and she heard Priscilla chanting.

"Drink," she heard Kol yell, and Caroline downed the contents of the goblet before it fell to the ground. She barely registered that she was screaming as the acidic liquid burned through her veins, faintly seeing Klaus yelling as Kol held him back with seemingly great difficulty, shouting that whatever was going on was supposed to happen.

Spots danced in Caroline's vision, and felt her breathing stutter before her vision went black.

What felt like a split second later, her eyes flew open and she took a sharp breath as she sat up against the sheets, Klaus immediately pressing a cup of blood into her hands, which she drank.

She was overwhelmed by sound and sight, just as she was when she first turned, except it was somehow _more_. She felt the stronger sense of power thrum within her, and she closed her eyes again, savoring it.

"Sweetheart?"

"This feels...incredible."

She opened her eyes slowly to look at him, and became intensely aware of how blue his eyes were, the pink of his lips, the shine of his tongue as he licked them, looking at her. "Does it?"

She nodded.

"Try touching this. It's the plant we replaced vervain with in the spell."

She hesitantly reached out and brushed the pad of her finger across the stem of the plant he was holding; hissing and pulling it back when the burn coursed across her skin.

It worked.

She was an Original.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter :) What do you think about the plan for Katherine's body jump (or lack thereof)? Did you like the Kennett development? The play? Klaus's (very brief) meeting with Liz? Anything you especially want to see in the epilogue? Let me know!  
Hugs!  
-Angie**


	13. Epilogue

**A/N: And here we have the epilogue. Sorry it took awhile. I've been busy with school starting up.  
****I tried to incorporate some of what people asked for in reviews into the epilogue, and I hope I got most of it :)**  
**Thank you to Sophie for beta work.**  
**Enjoy!**  
**-Angie**

* * *

"So, this'll work, right?" Caroline asked for what felt like the millionth time.

"Yes," repeated Bonnie, Kol, and Priscilla at the same time, all incredibly exasperated.

"I promise that the theory is sound," Kol said. "We've checked about a thousand times."

"I just don't want anything to go wrong."

"I don't understand why, as it's not exactly your life on the line," Katherine said dully from the seat next to them.

"Yeah, but it's yours," Caroline pointed out, not missing the small smile on Katherine's face. "And Elena's," she added hastily at Bonnie's _'Really?' _look.

It had taken two years to find an appropriate human body for Elena to inhabit, and an additional few months to prepare the ritual. At Caroline's insistence, not wanting to cut some random person's life short, they had located a young girl around their age who had no close, immediate family and whose body was working fine, but had been in some kind of accident that would cause her to be comatose, and most likely never wake.

She still wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but she'd done a lot of thinking over the past few years, and Elena was her friend, though to be honest, Caroline wasn't sure she wanted to be friends anymore after this. Still though, Elena deserved a second chance, and Caroline was willing to give it to her.

She'd made Bonnie be the one to call Damon, though.

Klaus had compelled the girl's release from the hospital, and he was meeting them at the ritual site with her, having driven her with the equipment to keep her breathing. They had to use a celestial event, and Kol had suggested the Occultation of Regulus, which was extremely rare, making it powerful.

They pulled over in a field in northern New York State, the night silent due to the early hour, and Caroline watched Kol, Bonnie, and Priscilla prepare the pentagram around the girl's portable hospital bed. Katherine paced in her own pentagram, looking uncharacteristically nervous.

Caroline twisted her fingers while Klaus stood boredly next to her, his arm slung around her shoulders. She moved closer to him almost automatically, letting his calm wash over her.

The spark was still there, the electric crackle underneath their skin that warmed her insides when they touched, and she doubted it would ever go away. She still felt complete with him, and she doubted that would ever change.

The next twenty minutes were nerve-wracking, and Priscilla, as usual, disappeared almost as soon as the spell was done. Everyone went quiet as Elena took her first real, shuddering breath, her eyes flying open, and she sat up, ripping the IVs out of her body, clearly confused by the medical equipment surrounding her.

"Wha-What's going on?"

"Elena," Caroline said cautiously.

"Care? What happened? What's wrong with my voice?"

"Well, Katherine took over your body, and so we body jumped you to a new one. A human one. You know, because you wanted to be human, and so we thought we'd move you to a human body, because that makes sense."

Elena tried to stand up, but stumbled a bit, and Caroline rushed over to support her.

"Your center of gravity is probably off. You know, 'cause you're human now, and this isn't a body that you're used to," Caroline said in a rush, continuing to ramble.

"How long has it been?" Elena asked slowly.

"Three years."

Elena's mouth dropped open, and Caroline could see her expression change as Elena tried to process the information.

Kol, who was clearly growing impatient with Elena's confusion (and was completely unsympathetic due to her participation in his murder), huffed irritably. "Can we all get into the car and get a move on? I have a nine o'clock class."

"You don't even _go _to class," Bonnie pointed out.

"I do when it's convenient, and right now it's convenient. _Ouch_, darling, really?"

"I only elbowed you in the side. Stop whining."

"Just because I heal quickly doesn't mean that it's painless."

"Oh, grow up, Kol."

Klaus gave Caroline what could only be described as a long-suffering look, and she sighed. "Everyone in the van, _now_."

There was a general rush for the front passenger seat, which Caroline won (mostly due to Klaus growling at Kol from the driver's seat when his brother got there first), and five minutes later they were on their way. Bonnie was uncomfortably pinned between Kol and Elena in the back row while Katherine kicked the back of Klaus's seat from the middle, leaning against the medical equipment that had been wedged haphazardly next to her, Caroline sending him dark looks whenever he threatened to pull her heart out if she did it _one more time_.

"Are we there yet?"

"Kol, I swear, if you ask again–"

"You'll turn this car around and go straight home? Because that seems quite in-line with my goals at this poin–"

There was a loud cracking sound, and the car swerved as Klaus turned around to see what happened, leaving Caroline to grab the wheel and force them back on paved road.

Bonnie was rubbing her temples while Elena stared determinedly out the window, and Katherine turned back from Kol's body, his head hanging at an awkward angle, and shrugged unrepentantly.

"He was bothering me."

"Are we there yet?" Klaus grumbled under his breath, and Caroline turned up the radio in response.

**XXX**

"Kol!" Caroline screamed, stomping out of the kitchen to the living room, and stand directly in front of Kol, blocking the television. "What the fuck did you do?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, giving her an exasperated look.

"There's some unidentifiable orange powder all over the counter. It looks like EasyMac, but I'm afraid to taste it, and we both know Katherine thinks that EasyMac is for 'heathens'," Caroline said, making airquotes.

"Why do you always assume it's my fault, Caroline? What if I didn't do anything?"

She glared at him, and he just shrugged, trying to move on the couch so that he could look around her body at the television.

She sighed. "All right, fine. Who did it?"

"I didn't say that I didn't do it, I asked why you always think it's my fault," he said, giving her a cheeky grin and catching the pillow she threw at him, throwing it on the floor.

"Clean it," Caroline growled. "Honestly, Kol, we've been living together for three years, and you still don't clean up your messes. _It isn't that difficult. _You are an adult. Pick up after yourself."

"The hybrids come Tuesday and Friday to clean."

"Yes, and I'd like the apartment to _still _be clean on the other days of the week."

"All right, all right. _Someone's _cranky," Kol mumbled, getting up. "You would think that you'd be happy to be graduating, but it seems to just be making you angrier every day."

"That's not true," Caroline said, massaging her temples.

"I think you're scared of moving to New Orleans with the rest of us," Kol said bluntly.

Caroline shrugged, still surprised at how creepily good Kol was at observing other people. "Not so much scared as nervous."

"What's the difference?"

"Well, I know I'll be safe. I'm just worried about what people will think about me, I guess."

"Ah. Well, unluckily for what will most likely be a very small minority, they don't get a vote on whether you'll be queen or not."

"Queen?" Caroline asked, turning to frown at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Nik is the self-proclaimed King of New Orleans. You're his...person. So, you're the queen."

"I'm his _person_?"

"Well, 'girlfriend' sounds wrong, you're not married, 'lover' makes it sound positively _scandalous_. I don't know what you want me to call it."

"I'm his mate, Kol."

Kol gave her an exasperated look and turned to get another Mountain Dew out of the refrigerator. "Look, Caroline, it'll be fine. If you want to fret some more, find Nik."

"Fine, I see how it is," she said, letting out a long-suffering sigh for dramatic effect. "He'll be back tonight. I'll just go sulk in my room. All alone. By myself. Fretting."

She turned before she could see what she knew would be one of Kol's epic eyerolls.

**XXX**

"Elena Gilbert," the woman at the podium called, and Katherine restrained a wince at the name.

She really needed to stop procrastinating and file her change of name form.

Katherine shook the woman's hand, smiled for the cameras, and strutted back to her seat, giving Caroline, who'd received her diploma a few names earlier, a small smile.

She scanned the audience impatiently until the ceremony was over, her heart sinking as she failed to spot Elijah every time she looked.

Ever since the truth of her death came to light, he'd been evasive. She preferred to think it was the result of the whole cure debacle, but she knew it was more than that. He had trusted her, she hadn't betrayed that trust, and he wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.

They had spent the entire time they'd known each other with him reaching out, Katherine nearly giving in, and then her betraying his trust and running away. The fact that she hadn't seemed to behave according to pattern apparently startled him, and if Elijah didn't like one thing, it was change.

He had been avoiding visiting, only coming to see his family, though he had replied to Caroline's extra-formal graduation invitation with an affirmative answer. When she finally stood up with the rest of the Class of 2014, she felt dejected, and just a bit betrayed. Elijah never broke promises.

At least, not to her. Never to her.

"Top of the class in the history department, with a degree in European History, emphasis on the Renaissance. Do you not consider that a bit unfair to your classmates, Katerina?"

Katherine froze, turning slowly to face Elijah, who was smiling slightly, brushing a small leaf off the jacket of his perfectly pressed suit.

"You're here," she said, her voice guarded.

"Indeed. I wouldn't miss it."

"I guess you did RSVP," she said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

Elijah stepped towards her, grabbing her hand and bringing it to his lips to kiss her palm, his eyes dark, gaze heated, and before he removed his lips, she continued speaking. "Let's do this somewhere else."

"I have much to say before I take you to bed, Katerina."

"That's confident of you, considering that you've barely talked to me in the last few years," she said before she could stop herself, pulling her hand away from his. "But that's not what I meant. This whole graduation thing has been done to death. I want something special and original."

"You don't ask much of me," he said dryly, though she could see his amusement from the way his lips turned up at the corners.

"You wouldn't love me any other way," she said, trying to keep her own confidence, turning to walk away to the front plaza of the school. "You have twenty-four hours to convince me that I should forgive you for being such a first-rate jackass."

She'd already forgiven him, to be honest. Elijah didn't give up on anyone or anything, and he loved her (and she him). She resisted the urge to turn back and see what she knew would be his expression of perfectly mixed lust and affection, instead adding an extra sway of her hips as she moved.

Yes, they were meant to be, but she did like it when he groveled.

**XXX**

"Bonnie?"

"What?" Bonnie asked from the study.

Kol walked in, sinking down on the small couch wedged against the wall, and Bonnie looked up from her Biology textbook. "What, Kol?" she repeated.

He just stared at her for a few seconds before shrugging and propping his feet up on the armrest, tossing a pencil in the air and catching it repeatedly.

Bonnie, used to this sort of behavior, just rolled her eyes and turned back to her book, mouthing the words as she read them and transferring key points to her notebook.

"Bonnie?"

"_What_, Kol?" she asked, looking up at him exasperatedly.

"I love you."

She opened her mouth and closed it again, frowning, before closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Give me two minutes to finish this chapter."

"Honestly, darling, really? I tell you that I love you and you want to finish your chapter?"

"Well, if I tell you that I love you now, you're going to tackle me against the desk, probably fucking up my notes and ripping my textbook, and I'm going to have no notes for the open-book test tomorr–"

She was cut off by his lips on hers as he tugged her against him, easily pulling her up to wrap her legs around his waist. "I'll buy you one at the bookstore tomorrow," he said in-between the kisses he pressed to her skin.

"My test–"

"Your professor is going to conveniently come down with something."

"That's _cheating_, Kol," she said, her breathing growing more ragged. "Just two minutes. You've been alive how long now?"

"A long time," he said, too lazy to do the math.

"Two minutes isn't that long to wait, then," she pointed out, wriggling out of his grasp, and he let her, sitting down on the couch, a bit petulant.

"Fine."

She sat back down, clearly suppressing a smile, and he felt like each scratch of her pencil against notebook paper was taking an eternity.

Despite his age, Kol was not patient.

At all.

"Okay," she said, putting down her pencil and looking up, and Kol resisted the urge to tell her that patience was something that really only happened for her and could she _please _get a move on, instead looking at her expectantly.

"I love you too."

"Excellent. Glad we cleared that up," he said, pushing himself up and stalking to her, more than a bit predatorily, and she bit her lip as he approached.

"Me too. Oh my god, Kol, put me down!"

**XXX**

Caroline stirred slowly, her vision bleary as she heard familiar footsteps climbing up the stairs, and she smiled as Klaus walked in, closing the door behind him and shrugging his jacket off before stripping and climbing into bed behind her. She sighed softly as she snuggled into his chest, tangling her legs with his. "How'd it go?" she asked, her voice slightly rough from sleep.

"Just fine, love."

"Good."

He hummed in agreement, burying his nose in her hair, his breath hot against her neck. She'd gotten used to the heightened feeling of touch and sound in the last three years, the way his breath made her shiver, the color of his eyes when he looked at her, and the sensation of everything that was so much _more_, even than when she'd first turned to a vampire.

"I missed you," she mumbled.

"I was only gone for a few days, love."

"I know. I wasn't inconsolable or anything," she said teasingly, humming in contentment as his fingers made light circles on her hip.

"I would have felt it if you were," he said, his lips moving against her skin.

"That's true."

She turned over to face him, smiling and burying her nose in his neck, letting her eyelids droop.

"What, no welcome home sex, love?"

She pulled back and cracked an eye open to look at him. "Seriously?"

"Worth a try," he said, and she could feel his smile against her temple as she snuggled back against him, and his hand drifted down to rest on her ass.

Just his proximity to her made the ache start between her thighs, and she pressed herself closer to him, almost without noticing, trying to encourage him. She felt him smile against her skin, his hand stroking her waist before moving to cup her breast under the shirt she'd stolen from his dresser to sleep in, pinching the nipple lightly, making her sigh as she felt his cock growing hard against her inner thigh.

"Klaus…"

"Sorry, love, I'll stop."

"No, keep going," she mumbled. "It would be rude to start and then stop."

He laughed quietly. "Would it?"

"Yes. It would," she said, spreading her legs and hooking one over his waist, moaning softly as he circled her wet entrance.

"Turn over," he said, pushing her lightly so that she was on her stomach and fingering the hem of the shirt, pulling it up to press a kiss to her hip and pulling her to her knees.

He pushed two fingers inside of her, making her moan and roll her hips against his fingers, before kissing up her spine following the hem of the shirt, his tongue darting out to taste every creamy inch of skin revealed as he pulled the fabric up her body.

"I want you."

He smiled against her shoulder, planting soft kisses on her skin to her neck, his tongue, lips, and teeth moving pleasurably against her, making her core ache. She felt the head of his hard cock press against her entrance and he swore under his breath as he pushed inside her.

She clenched around him, his cock filling her perfectly, and she let out a sharp gasp as he began to move.

She would never get tired of the sensation of him moving inside her, the way his cock hit her g-spot with every thrust, how the intense coil of pleasure built inside her as their skin slapped together, fast and rough and _right_.

"I missed this so much, Caroline. The way you look, bent over with your face buried in the pillows as I fuck you hard, the way you scream my name while you claw at the sheets. You're so wet for me, Caroline, your pussy hot and tight around my cock. Does it feel good when I fuck you?"

"Yes," she breathed, her eyes shut tight as he pounded into her, the bedframe creaking quietly as it moved in pace with his thrusts. "Faster, Klaus. Please."

She moaned loudly as he whispered all the ways he wanted to fuck her, the filthy things he'd do to her, the way he'd make her beg to come, and she felt her core tighten as she prepared to tip over the edge, her pleading for _more _and _harder _echoing around the room until she felt the pressure snap. She bit down hard on the pillow, moaning loudly through her gritted teeth as her body trembled from the intensity of her release, and she heard him growl out her name as he fucked her through her orgasm, spilling inside of her moments later.

He collapsed on top of her, his body a pleasant weight on hers, and she smiled slightly as he nibbled her ear, their shared contentment blooming within her, warm under her skin.

"I love you," she mumbled, tilting her head to the side to give him better access to her neck.

"So I've been told," he said teasingly as he nuzzled her skin.

She scoffed and wriggled out from under him, flipping them over to straddle him and rest her head on his chest. "Rude. Although I shouldn't have expected anything else from the Alpha King of Werewolves or whatever."

"Or whatever," he agreed, his lips twitching.

"Shut up," she mumbled, closing her eyes and humming in contentment.

She felt the rumble of his chest under her cheek as he chuckled, and his arms tightened around her, holding her steady against him, his nose buried in her hair to inhale her scent.

"And I love you, my mate," she heard him say right as she drifted off.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it. Did you like how it wrapped up? Tell me your thoughts!  
If you're anxious to see more of the Koltholine BroT3 roommate stuff, I have a drabble series that will be updated randomly called "Under My Roof" which chronicles the adventures/hijinks of said roommate arrangement. There will be more of Bee in that, which is really the reason I wanted to write it. ;)  
You can check out my other stories on my profile. My tumblr is thetourguidebarbie, and you can also check me out on twitter at AngieWritesKC (although I'm hardly ever on twitter).**

**Thank you so much for reading this story! It's been a fun one :P**

**Hugs!  
-Angie**


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